5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

# • 

{ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE, 



IN 



SELECT DISCOURSES. 



BY 



THOMAS H£ SKINNER, kkj 




NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR, 
THEOLOGICAL AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL BOOKSELLER, CORNER OP 
PARK-ROW AND SPRUCE-STREET. 
1839. 
i7t' 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by 
JOHN S. TAYLOR, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Southern District of New- York. 



3 r 3 r 



6. P. Hopkins, Printer, 2, AnB-street 



Ktliu Volumt 



IS RESPECTFULLY PRESENTED, 
BY THE AUTHOR) 

TO 

THE MERCER-STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

AS AN EXPRESSION OP HIS 

PASTORLY CARE AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD. 



PREFACE. 



I have entitled this book, " Religion of the 
Bible," not because I would intimate that there 
is nothing of much importance contained in the 
Bible, which is not expressed in these few pages; 
nor that the kind of religion, Which the Scriptures 
teach, is not elsewhere to be found in the writings 
of men ; but merely because I think, that what of 
religion the book does contain, has been drawn 
directly and exclusively out of the Bible, coin- 
cides with it in teaching, spirit, and purpose, and 
has that authority, at least, for its warrant and 
its defence. 

If I have attained my end, the reader will find 
in the pieces composing this volume, nothing in- 
congenial with the spiritual feelings and sympa- 
thies of all true Christians ; nothing which will 
not, if he is a spiritual man, tend to his advance- 
ment in spirituality ; and if he is a worldly man, 
1* 



vi 



PREFACE . 



tend to make him a spiritual one. It is earnestly 
hoped, that in perusing the book, he will not once 
find his thoughts conversant with a subject, which 
he himself will regard as a matter of doubtful 
disputation, or as among the uncertainties of 
religion, or as pertaining to those peculiarities, 
whether of doctrine, practice, or spirit, which have 
given Christians different names, and have divided 
them into contending schools and sects. 

Let it not be presumed, however, from what 
has now been said respecting the sort of book 
which I have intended this to be, that I wish to 
be thought averse to a strictly doctrinal mode of 
treating religious subjects. If the book is adapted 
to make this impression on the judicious reader, I 
can only say, that my convictions of what should 
be its intellectual character, have not had justice 
done them by my endeavour. The subject mat- 
ter of the book, I am sure, demands, what I un- 
derstand by the doctrinal strain of discourse, in 
a preeminent degree. It is not when its theme 
is controversy, but certain and fundamental truth, 



PREFACE. 



vii 



that religious discourse should be most distin- 
guished by discrimination, exactness of statement, 
clearness, order, and strength of reasoning, as 
well as by pungency and earnestness. I am 
aware also that excellency of discourse on such 
a theme, requires in its author not only a high 
order of intellect, but eminent spirituality : and 
when I think of this, I cannot but be humbled at 
the vast disparity between the importance of the 
topicks here discussed, and the treatment I am 
capable of giving them. 

Nor do I wish to be thought of the opinion, 
that all discussion of points in dispute among 
Christians, is unlawful, or unnecessary. The or- 
dinary teaching of the ministry, should, I am per- 
suaded, have little to do with disputes: If any 

MAN SPEAK, LET HIM SPEAK AS THE ORACLES OP 

God. It is a "point of great inconvenience and 
peril to entitle the people to hear controversies, 
and all kinds of doctrine. They say no part of 
the counsel of God is to be suppressed : so as the 
difference which the Apostle maketh between 



viii 



PREFAC E . 



milk and strong meat is confounded : and his pre- 
cept, that the weak be not admitted unto questions 
and controversies, taketh no place."* If, never- 
theless, Christians will discuss their differences 
with becoming moderation, and so that earnest 
endeavours be still used to keep the unity of the 
spirit in the bonds of peace, there doubtless are 
times and places in which they may do so, with- 
out sin, and, perhaps, to edification. Where, 
however, the business directly in hand is that of 
saving men, earnestness and skill in conducting 
that great work, will, as far as possible, preclude 
the intrusion of controverted points. 

I have been induced to give these discourses 
to the public in their present form, from the fact 
that though they have been before printed, the 
most of them have scarcely been published ; and 
particularly with the hope that I may by this 
means, speak more frequently, in their private 
habitations, to those accustomed to my voice in 
the house of God. 

* Lord Bacon. 



PREFACE. 



ix 



The discourses, with one or two exceptions, 
have not the form of religious addresses spoken 
to an assembly, and are not introduced as such 
addresses commonly are, by sentences from the 
Bible serving as mottoes or texts. To suit the 
character of the publications in which they ap- 
peared, they were originally thus printed ; and it 
was not until this reprint of them was nearly 
completed, that I began to regret, notwithstand- 
ing the prejudice which seems to be prevailing 
against discourses so composed, that the}' were 
not remodelled into the ordinary homiletical style. 
I have given the texts which I would have selected, 
had this regret been prevented by earlier reflec- 
tion^ in the table of contents. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

1. — SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 

" Whom have I in heaven but Thee 1 and there 
is none upon earth that I desire besides 
Thee, 13 

II. — SPIRITUAL JOY. 
" The joy of the Lord is your strength," . 44 

III. — DOING GOOD: Part First. 
" Jesus — went about doing good," . . 87 

IV. — DOING GOOD: Part Second. 
"Jesus — went about doing good," . . 113 

V. — CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 

" We are labourers together with God," . 142 

VI. — PRAYER: Part First. 

14 What profit should we have if we pray unto 

Him?" 183 



CONTENTS. 



VII.— PRAYER: Part Second. 
" What profit should we have if we pray unto 

Him?" -207 

VIII. — THE SABBATH. 
"The Lord blessed the Sabbath day," . . 227 

IX.— RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord," . . 257 

X. — THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 
The Parable of the labourers in the vineyard, . 291 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



I. 

SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 

There are three kinds of religion among 
those who call themselves Christians. Of 
one kind it were well if the world were 
destitute. Excepting by the observance of 
religious rites and solemnities, it does not 
distinguish the lives of those who practise 
it from the lives of irreligious men. It is 
the form of godliness without its power : 
the religion which would serve at the same 
time two masters ; would join light and 
darkness, Christ and Belial, believers and 
infidels together. 

There is another kind of religion which 
has been called the middle path of Christi- 
2 



14 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



anity. It is the religion manifestly of the 
generality of those who are considered 
Christians. It embraces, besides a profes- 
sion and the observance of ordinances, a 
belief of the doctrines, and an irreprehen- 
sible outward conformity to the duties of 
the Gospel. But it falls short of the pri- 
vileges of the Gospel ; not including those 
lively hopes and anticipations, those holy 
joys and sorrows, that sensible intercourse 
and fellowship with God and Christ, that 
enrapturing communion with the Holy Spi- 
rit, that vivid and permanent earnest and 
assurance of Heaven, which the Gospel 
warrants and encourages in every believer. 

A third kind of religion is that which 
does include these peculiar experiences. 
We would designate it Spiritual Religion, 
It is a religion which can be satisfied with 
nothing merely external, however blame- 
less and fair. The offering up of prayer 
and praise, meditation in the Scriptures, 
attendance upon ordinances, liberality to- 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



15 



ward the poor, the utmost exactness and 
irreproachableness of life — these do not 
meet its demands, unless there is corres- 
pondent sensibility and life in the heart. 
There must be a feeling of the Divine pres- 
ence ; a relishing of the Divine excellence ; 
a heart-assured persuasion of the Divine 
favour and complacency. God must be 
enjoyed ; or there will be disquietude of 
sou), as in the Patriarch, " O that I knew 
where I might find him and in the Psalmist, 
" as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, O God." 
If the light of God's countenance ceases 
at any time to shine upon the soul, the 
darkness which then covers it no outward 
prosperity can dispel ; its sorrows nothing 
can alleviate. No loveliness, no excellence 
remains, when the heart cannot taste the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ. No 
satisfaction is taken in the intercourse of 
the dearest friends when the returns of 
grace from the Holy Comforter are sus- 



16 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



pended. The visible world is a waste 
wilderness when the world unseen is clouded 
or remote. There is no peace, no pleasure 
in life, when there is no sensible relish and 
delight in God and divine things. 

The difference between this last kind of 
religion, and those alluded to above, is 
very apparent in examples of each. Every 
one sees a striking difference in the piety 
of such men as Leighton, Baxter, Ed- 
wards, Brainerd, and Martyn, and that of 
the mass of those who bear, and are not 
supposed to dishonour, the Christian name, 
Dr. John Mason Good, the distinguished 
and excellent author of the " Book of Na- 
ture," said, on his death bed, "I have taken 
what unfortunately the generality of Chris- 
tians too much take — I have taken the 
middle walk of Christianity. I have en- 
deavoured to live up to its duties and doc- 
trines, but I have lived below its privileges." 
The men first mentioned were not content 
to pursue what is here called the middle 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



17 



walk of Christianity. Their religion was 
strictly and eminently experimental and spi- 
ritual. 

This kind of religion has greatly the 
pre-eminence above every other in many 
respects, some of which will be briefly 
considered. 

I. It is Scriptural religion. The religion 
of the Scriptures is the fruit of the Spirit, 
which is " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tern* 
perance embracing frames and disposi- 
tions of soul more agreeable to that lively 
and affectionate religion of which we speak 
than to any other, Manifestly, likewise, is 
this sort of religion most congenial with 
the view of holy living, given us in the Scrip- 
tures, when they speak of it, which they 
constantly do, as walking with God ; having 
fellowship with the Father and the Son ; 
communing with the Spirit ; walking after 
the Spirit ; walking in the Spirit ; walking 
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort 
2* 



18 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE, 



of the Holy Ghost. — It is most accordant 
also with those passages which call upon 
the saints to delight themselves in God ; to 
rejoice in the Lord ; to rejoice in him al- 
ways ; and which represent them as having 
peace with God, and the love of God shed 
abroad in their hearts ; as having the witness 
of the Spirit with their own spirit ; as walk- 
ing by faith, not by sight, looking more at 
the things of the unseen world than at things 
which address themselves to their bodily 
senses. — It is, moreover, most like the re- 
ligion of Scripture characters ; as of Enoch, 
and Noah, and Abraham, who walked with 
God ; of Moses, and Samuel, and David, 
and Elijah, and Daniel ; of the Apostles 
and the first Christians also, as far as their 
history has been written in the Bible. The 
religion of these men who are held up to 
us as patterns and exemplars, was eminently 
a vital, affectionate, spiritual religion. They 
conversed closely and delightfully with God, 
and lived habitually under the light of his 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



19 



countenance, and in the sensible enjoyment 
of his love. — But especially was the per- 
sonal religion of Christ of this kind ; all 
whose plans and principles, ways and move- 
ments, discourses and doctrines, made it 
manifest, that his heart, and spirit, and will, 
were constantly one with the heart and 
spirit and will of God. 

II. It is the most rational kind of religion. 
If the things of religion are not merely ima- 
ginary, they ought in fitness and reason to 
command the whole heart, and rule the 
whole inner and outer man. If they are 
real, they are comparatively the only real- 
ities ; all else is shadow and illusion. If 
the God of the Scriptures, and the objects 
revealed to us in eternity do indeed exist, 
well may the prophet pronounce the world 
and its affairs to be less than nothing in 
the comparison. Such objects then, so 
transcendently important in themselves, 
ought to have a correspondent influence on 
our character and conduct. And what is 



20 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



such an influence ? If that Being who is 
the infinite fountain of all being, who made 
me, and sustains me every moment ; who, 
in all the glory of his infinite perfections, 
" compasses my path and my lying down," 
and is ever with me ; the Being on whom 
my happiness wholly depends, and from 
whom my last sentence is to proceed — if 
he has that influence on me which his cha- 
racter and relations to me ought to exert, 
shall I not always be in his fear ; shall I 
not always dwell in love to him ; and rejoice 
when he smiles upon me, and be troubled 
when he suspends the communications of 
his favour ? Towards such a Being, so re- 
lated to me as God is, do I not express a 
reasonable affection when I exclaim, in the 
ardent language of the Psalmist, "whom 
have I in Heaven but thee, and there is 
none upon earth that I desire beside thee." 
If I have any love at all for such a Person- 
age, and one so related to me as Christ, 
ought I not to be constrained by that love, 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



21 



as Paul was, to live and die to this infinite 
benefactor — making it my whole duty and 
happiness to serve and enjoy him ? And 
what would be the result upon my heart 
and life, of a reasonable operation of the 
Gospel upon them ? What manner of per- 
son should I be in all holy conversation and 
godliness, if my example were a just tran- 
script of the great truths of the Gospel ? 
That religion has been thought by some to 
be the most enlightened and reasonable, 
which has least to do with the affections 
of the heart ; but never was there a more 
manifest mistake. Reasonableness in reli- 
gion is absorption of mind and heart — the 
whole man ruled and overborne by the 
transcendent importance and glory of the 
objects of religion. For a man to pretend 
to be religious, and yet be cold and back- 
ward in the concerns of religion, and con- 
tentedly uncertain whether the infinite ob- 
jects which it discloses may not be adverse 
to his eternal happiness — this is not rea- 



22 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



son, but the supreme of inconsistency and 
stupidity. 

III. It is spiritual religion alone in which 
the human mind can find sensible and satis- 
fying enjoyment. True religious enjoyment 
consists in a heartfelt complacency in God 
and divine things. There is indeed a feel- 
ing of quietude arising from the regular dis- 
charge of moral duties, and the routine of 
religious observances, which is not spirit- 
ual joy or peace, but the fruit of predom- 
inant self-righteousness and fatal delusion. 
It implies a great abiding spiritual apathy 
and thoughtlessness ; for if sensibility were 
awake, and thought intelligently exercised 
on the person's habitual course of life, a 
general worldliness of spirit would be seen 
to pollute and vitiate the services of reli- 
gion ; and then these services, instead of 
yielding hope and comfort, would conspire 
with other things to work fear, and doubt, 
and misery, in the heart. — There is, how- 
ever, a hope of Heaven different from that 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



23 



of the self-righteous, which springs from 
reflection on the general tenour of our con- 
duct, regarded as an evidence of our spirit- 
ual character and state. This probably is 
the hope of the mass of professed Chris- 
tians. We speak not against it, except by 
lamenting that it should be made so gener- 
ally the measure of spiritual enjoyment. 
What is the amount of positive happiness 
that a hope of this kind yields ? It is not 
the assurance of hope — the living, refresh- 
ing, soul-elevating hope of the first Chris- 
tians. It does not preclude doubt, but 
only despair. It leaves its subjects uncer- 
tain of their state. They are not sure of 
their calling and election. The Spirit does 
not so "witness with their spirits" but that 
they remain halting, hesitating, trembling, 
in respect to their final sentence ; or if not 
trembling, wondering that they do not, 
amidst their want of satisfying evidence. 
Such is the general feelings of professed 
Christians, in respect to their character 



24 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



and prospects for eternity — and such, or 
worse than this, must necessarily be the 
feeling of all who do not cultivate and ex- 
ercise a spiritual religion. Nothing but a 
sensible, living, joyous intercourse with God 
and Christ and the things of the Spirit, can 
wholly displace anxiety or even torment from 
the heart. Without this there may be self- 
complacency, there may be delusion, there 
may be negative hope mingled with fear ; but 
a soul-satisfying evidence of present accep- 
tableness in the sight of God, and of ulti- 
mate admission into the joys of his king- 
dom, there cannot be, without the pleasur- 
able consciousness of the reality and excel- 
lency of heavenly things. This conscious- 
ness is a witness that cannot be resisted ; 
it is itself the earnest and foretaste of eter- 
nal life, and can no more co-exist with 
doubt, than the consciousness of an out- 
ward world can co-exist with hesitation as 
to the reality of such a world. Let a man 
feel habitual love to God — let him feel the 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



25 



peace of God in his heart — let him feel 
the Spirit of Christ living in him — let 
him have conscious delight in the truths 
and promises of the Gospel, and he will 
then enjoy evidences of his state, which will 
displace every doubt, and yield him " glory 
begun below." If therefore we would have 
a religion full of comforts and pleasures, a 
religion which will yield us solid satis- 
faction, let us fix our minds, not on that 
customary religion which rests in periodi- 
cal services and outward strictness, but on 
a religion of intimate, sensible, living com- 
munion and intercourse with God. 

IV. This is the only kind of religion 
which perceptibly advances the soul in the 
life and likeness of God. They who sensi- 
bly commune with God, and keep their 
hearts alive to the excellency of divine 
things, from day to day, cannot but become 
more and more assimilated to those glori- 
ous objects. These objects operating up- 
on susceptible and affectionate minds, must 
3 



26 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



make upon them their own impression 
and image; and that image must at length 
become too resplendent in the spirit and 
life, to leave it doubtful whether there has 
been progress and growth in grace. Men 
of spiritual religion, therefore, must be ad- 
vancing, as time passes, toward the meas- 
ure of the stature of a perfect Christian. 
In their views, feelings, and conversation, 
they must be rising nearer and nearer to 
" the just made perfect." The beauty of 
holiness must be gradually brightening up- 
on them, and their affinity and relationship 
to Heaven must be becoming increasingly 
manifest. It must be so, by the very laws 
of such intercourse, as they maintain with 
heavenly objects ; and that it is so in fact, no 
one can be ignorant. These men, of what- 
ever country or age, do advance in moral 
worth and loveliness, as they advance in 
years. Time invigorates them in all the 
principles, and beautifies them in all the 
graces of holiness. Even while "their 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



27 



outward man perishes " — while the animal 
vivacity and vigour of their earlier years de- 
cay, " they are renewed in the inward man, 
day by day." Was it not thus with all the 
spiritually-minded, whose names we have 
mentioned, or of whom we have ever read 
or heard ? But the same cannot be truly 
said of men of other kinds of religion. They 
are, in regard to religion and holiness, lit- 
tle better at one time than at another. 
Take them when you will, in the middle of 
life, or in old age, they are not, as far as 
man can see, much improved in spirit. 
Their hearts do not seem to be much more 
in Heaven ; their affections do not appear 
to be more spiritual ; their devotedness to 
God and his interests does not seem increas- 
ed. Call to mind instances of the customary 
sort of religion — think of those whose reli- 
gion is of this kind, and consider whether 
these remarks are not exemplified in their 
conduct. Do they present themselves to our 
thoughts as Christians advancing in the 



28 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



life of God ? Are they evidently holier men 
now than they were some years ago ? Do we 
feel more confident of their final salvation 
at this moment than we did when they first 
professed conversion? Is it more certain 
now — more certain to themselves or to 
any others — that they will be saved, than 
it was then? Alas, it is well if the proba- 
bility of their final salvation is not dimin- 
ished. Professed Christians who have not 
a spiritual and affectionate religion, often 
degenerate, but seldom improve. It is not 
merely praying, or reading, or hearing, that 
profits the soul, but just feeling toward the 
objects with which the soul converses, or 
should converse, in prayer, reading, and 
hearing. These exercises are nothing, ex- 
cept as sensibility of heart pervades and an- 
imates them. It is by this sensibility, that 
God and our own spirits come into union 
and fellowship. It is by this, that our souls 
mingle with the invisible things of the sanc- 
tifying Spirit. Two lifeless masses are 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



29 



not more inoperative on each other, than 
the unseen world on the human character, 
if sensibility toward that world is wanting. 
We may speak, and read, and think, but we 
shall never be made better, if we do not feel. 
Now when we remember what the Scrip- 
tures teach concerning the essential pro- 
gressiveness of true grace in the heart, that 
it is as the little "leaven which leaveneth 
the whole lump f and join with this the 
fact, that professed Christians who are not 
spiritual in their feelings, do not visibly ad- 
vance in the divine life, can we rest satisfi- 
ed with a religion like theirs ? Is it by any 
means certain that their religion will save 
the soul? 

V. Spiritual religion is far more useful 
than any other. Usefulness depends on 
three things, — power, readiness to use it, 
and using it in a proper manner ; and no 
kind of religion includes these things in so 
eminent a degree as the spiritual religion 
of which we speak. — There is more 
3* 



30 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE 

power in this than in any other sort of reli- 
gion. Knowledge is power in religious 
concerns as well as every other ; and there 
is no religion so favourable as this to the 
acquisition of divine knowledge. Men may 
be led to pursue such knowledge by curios- 
ity, ambition, and other motives ; but the 
attainments so made will be superficial, 
when compared with the illumination shed 
down from the Holy Spirit into the mind 
and heart of the spiritually discerning and 
inquiring Christian. How sure and sub- 
stantial, how deep and enduring, is the 
knowledge of the spiritually-minded, in 
comparison with theirs who know every 
thing in speculation only. And ordinarily 
their knowledge is greater, as well as of a 
better kind. They meditate more in the 
Scriptures, they reflect more, they pray 
more, and the relish for divine things which 
inclines them to do so, makes them quick 
of spiritual understanding, and thus be- 
comes the means of a more rapid growth 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



31 



in divine knowledge than would otherwise 
be possible. And as the religion of which 
we treat joins to greater knowledge, greater 
grace and holiness, which likewise is the 
highest kind of power, it must, in respect 
to its intrinsic strength and efficiency, be 
incomparably superior to every other. 

But not only have the men of this reli- 
gion more strength, they are also more dis- 
posed to use their strength than others. It 
is a false notion of spiritual-mindedness, 
that it inclines men to a secluded and inac- 
tively contemplative life. It had not this 
tendency in Christ and his apostles, or the 
prophets ; the influence of whose mighty 
labours is felt over the world to this day. 
Spiritual-mindedness is nothing but a living 
and efficient benevolence, duly awake and 
active. From the secret place of the Most 
High, in which it dwells, it looks abroad 
upon the sensual world with a self-sacrific- 
ing, self-devoting compassion, like that of 
our blessed Saviour ; and is ever ready to 



32 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



go forth, in his spirit and strength, to every 
work of faith and love. Customary reli- 
gion, and even principles of natural good- 
ness, have led men to practise some forms 
of benevolence ; but it is spiritual-minded- 
ness that has cared for the bodies and souls 
of men on the largest scale, and has 
wrought miracles of mercy and love, the 
record of which will endure longer than 
the sun and the moon. 

But the religion here recommended is 
pre-eminent, as we have already said, not 
only in power and in aptitude to use that 
power, but in the excellence of the manner 
in which it uses it. It is both in labours 
more abundant, and in wisdom and pro- 
priety of action more perfect. It does its 
work aptly, skilfully, prudently, with a spirit 
congenial to its ends ; a spirit of meekness 
and love, and dependence on God. In the 
highest instances and sorts of benevolent 
labour, men of little spirituality would not 
find themselves in their proper element. 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



33 



The unsuitableness of their spirit and man- 
ner would make their work irksome, and 
mischief might be the result. How much 
out of place do such men find themselves 
under remarkable effusions of the Holy 
Spirit; when the accessions to the happi- 
ness of the universe are as the " clouds, 
and as when doves fly to their windows." 
It is spirituality alone that can make men 
as " polished shafts " to the consciences of 
their fellow-men at such seasons. It is 
only this, indeed, which can ensure a right 
and successful way of fulfilling any of the 
offices of the holiest and noblest order of 
well-doing. 

These things demonstrate the superior 
usefulness of the spiritual kind of reli- 
gion. Observation also confirms this con- 
clusion. One spiritual Christian in a 
church is often more useful than a hundred 
ordinary professors. How many hundred 
Christians of the common kind would be 
required to make, in point of usefulness, 
one Baxter, or Edwards, or Martyn. These, 



34 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



it is true, were men of powerful minds ; but 
it was their superior spirituality that made 
their power the means of exalting the ages 
in which they lived. There were other 
professed Christians of minds as powerful 
and of learning as great as theirs, who did 
very little toward advancing the cause of 
holiness in the world. If then we would 
pass our days in the most useful manner — 
if we would give the church and our genera- 
tion the greatest reason to bless God for our 
existence, let our religion be of the spiritual 
kind. 

VI. This kind of religion will best sustain 
us under evil. He who is accustomed to 
converse affectionately and delightfully with 
God — to lay open his heart to the influ- 
ence of His " excellent glory " and of eter- 
nal objects, will acquire a capacity of en- 
during evil, altogether peculiar to himself. 
His frame of spirit, and the blessedness of 
that intercourse, make him in a manner in- 
vulnerable to evil. The day of trouble to the 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



35 



man of the world is insupportable, because, 
besides the evil of his unholy spirit, he has no 
counterbalancing good in prospect. Past 
prosperity cannot be recalled ; the future is 
unknown, and may be worse than the pre- 
sent. The unspiritual, unexercised pro- 
fessor of religion, too, may not be prepared 
for that day: the hope which now sup- 
ports him may fail him then. He will then 
need other evidences of the divine favour 
than those on which he is accustomed to 
rely ; evidences which may not be afforded 
him then, as they are not sought for now. 
But the spiritual Christian is not thus for- 
lorn in heart when his time of trial comes. 
The feeling toward God expressed by the 
Psalmist, " whom have I in heaven but thee, 
and there is none upon earth that I desire 
beside thee," having been habitual with 
him even in the days of prosperity, he will 
not be desponding and heart-smitten now ; 
for God, his chosen portion, remains the 
same, and his delight in God is the same 



36 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



also : and how small a loss can befall that 
person, how little can he be injured by any 
calamity in the whole creation, whose hap- 
piness was not in the creation, but in its 
infinite Author. Besides, if there is a man 
to whom the Father of compassion will 
show himself especially gracious in the hour 
of need, that man, doubtless, is the spirit- 
ually-minded Christian. Who is an heir 
of the promises, if he is not ? Whom, if 
not him, does God love and delight in ? 
There may be room for doubt whether other 
sorts of professed Christians, — all other 
sorts, — may not be deceivers or deceived ; 
but who doubts his piety who lives a spirit- 
ual and heavenly life ? Such persons are 
assuredly the children of God, whom God 
will not forsake in times of trouble. 
The night of their affliction shall be as the 
brightest and best of their prosperous days. 
They shall glorify God in " passing through 
the fire their end shall be peace, and 
they shall depart, leaving mankind impress- 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



37 



ed with the certainty, that whoever may 
find their hope of ultimate happiness disap- 
pointed, these men were more fit for heaven 
than for earth, and " have passed through 
the gate into the city" of God. 

These are some of the considerations 
which show what manner of persons we all 
should be who call ourselves by the name 
of Christ. — But there is one objection which 
we fear will weigh more with some per- 
sons than all these considerations, however 
solemn and conclusive : it is, that the 
religion we recommend is not a practicable 
one. It may do perhaps for a very few pecu- 
liarly favoured and peculiarly situated per- 
sons, but it will not answer for the generality 
of mankind ■ — it is too refined, too elevated, 
too difficult a religion for the mass of the 
people. It is not, we suppose, the import of 
this objection, that this is a different reli- 
gion from that which the Scriptures teach. 
The scriptural certificate to this religion 
we have already presented. If there is a 
4 



38 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



religion on earth that corresponds to the 
very religion of the Bible, it is unquestion- 
ably this. Other religions may not be 
scriptural, but no one can doubt whether 
this religion is either scriptural or true. 
The evidences of its genuineness are like 
the sun's meridian beams. The conscience 
of the world decides that it is genuine — 
the religion of the Bible — the religion of 
God — the religion which God has revealed 
to man as the sure way to Heaven. But 
has God bound his creatures to an imprac- 
ticable kind of religion? Or has he pre- 
scribed a religion for all the world, which 
cannot be practised by more than one man 
in a million ? It is obvious that if the ob- 
jection means that the religion which, 
beyond all others, has the best claim to be 
received as the religion of the Scriptures, 
is strictly, and in plain truth, an impracti- 
cable religion to the bulk of mankind, the 
objection is profane and reproachful to the 
divine goodness and wisdom, and can hard- 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



39 



ly find a welcome lodgement in any other 
than an unholy breast. No ! the fact that 
this religion is practicable by one man, 
proves it to be practicable by any and every 
other man. If any one man has ever ex- 
emplified this religion, the matter is at rest : 
man may exemplify it : it is a religion for 
man, and a religion which every man is 
bound to exemplify. It should be consid- 
ered by those who make this objection, 
that they are limiting, not merely the phys- 
ical capability of man, but the resources 
of the Holy One Himself. The question 
as to practicability — the true question is, 
not whether I, in my own strength, shall 
succeed in practising this religion, but 
whether the Spirit and grace of God can 
enable me to practise it. 

We are not required to do any thing in 
reliance on our own strength, which truly 
would fail us, even for the exercise of a 
good thought. On the contrary, we are 
warned against self-confidence, as the cer- 



40 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



tain way to be ruined, and are directed to 
Him for strength in whom it hath pleased 
the Father that " all fulness should dwell ;" 
and certain it is that destruction awaits us, 
if we do not go to Him, and put our exclu- 
sive trust in the provision made for us in 
Him. The question is this, is there not a 
sufficiency for us in all the fulness of the 
Godhead? Can we not do all things in- 
cluded in this religion " through Christ 
strengthening us ?," Is there a man on earth 
whom Christ cannot strengthen to live the 
life of a spiritual Christian ? Let this be 
demonstrated — let the arm of the Almighty 
be shortened — and then may it be affirmed 
that the religion we contend for is not a 
practicable religion. The truth is that the 
generality of professed Christians never 
strive for, never aim at, this kind of religion. 
It is not in their hearts deliberately to pur- 
pose and intend that this religion shall be 
theirs. They content themselves with what 
is customary ; and that, for the most part, 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



41 



is to be as religious as expediency or per- 
sonal convenience may dictate. What la- 
bours, what pains-taking do they practise, 
to keep themselves in the love and fear of 
God all the day long ? What care do they 
exercise not to grieve the Holy Spirit ? 
What aspirations of soul have they for 
eminent holiness of heart ? What forget- 
ting do we see in them, of the things which 
are behind ; or what reaching forth unto 
those which are before ? What mortifica- 
tions of the flesh ; what fastings and watch- 
ings unto prayer do they practise ? Who 
then are they that pronounce spiritual Chris- 
tianity to be impracticable, but those who 
have never put it to the test of experiment ? 
It must be confessed, that if professed 
Christians will not try and intend to live 
spiritually, they cannot live so. Paul could 
not have lived so without deliberate purpose 
and constant effort. 

Still, some will think that although spirit- 
ual religion is the best and safest kind, yet 
4* 



42 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



as the more common sort may suffice, they 
will content themselves with that. But 
does not this savour more of a low and cal- 
culating selfishness, than of that spirit of 
regeneracy which instinctively pants after 
entire freedom from sin, and entire con- 
formity to the image of God ? Have those 
persons any true holiness who desire no 
more than may answer to keep them out of 
the world of wo ? But is it certain that the 
common sort of religion will suffice ? Who 
feels certain of it ? Have the professors of 
that religion an assurance of their salvation ? 
Their hearts answer, No ! Has the world 
any assurance of their salvation ? All men 
stand in doubt — and it is indeed a doubtful 
matter. St. Paul thought he should be a cast- 
away if he did not keep his body under 
and bring it into subjection. Do these pro- 
fessors of religion practise such discipline 
on themselves, that their souls may not be 
lost ? Who would stand in their souls' 
stead ? In the infinite concerns of religion, 



SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



43 



no uncertainty, no suspense of mind ought 
to be tolerated, if it can possibly be pre- 
vented ; and prevented it may be, by giving 
due diligence to that end. And the need- 
ful diligence in this case is not more than 
men generally employ to secure worldly 
things. But shall men — shall professors 
of religion, use more diligence to secure to 
themselves things that perish in the using, 
than to lay hold on eternal life ? Are such 
men Christians ? Must we not tremble at 
the question ! 

Thus irresistible and overwhelming, are 
the arguments for spiritual religion. 
Should we venture upon any other ? Des- 
titute of this kind of religion, is there a 
man living who, for a thousand worlds, 
would take our place at death or judgement ? 



it 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



Expounding the rule of duty to those who 
have violated it, tends in the first instance, 
if they have ingenuous minds, to exercise 
them with sorrow, but that sorrow ends in 
joy. The children of the captivity, who 
by warrant from the king of Persia, returned 
to the land of their fathers, had for a long 
time been destitute of spiritual instruction, 
and almost as a matter of course had fallen 
into spiritual insensibility and unconcern. 
But they were somehow led to gather them- 
selves together, as one man, to hear the 
word of God ; * and Ezra the Scribe, with 
certain Levites, his assistants, read in the 



* Nehemiah 8 : 1. 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



45 



book of the law of God distinctly, and gave 
the sense, and caused the people to under- 
stand the reading. The effect was, — an 
illustrious instance of the heart-melting 
power of divine truth, — a deep sense of 
sin in the entire assembly. All the people 
wept, when they heard the words of the law. 
An unusual spectacle in this hardhearted 
world ! An immense concourse of men all 
in tears before God on account of their 
sins ! Well might the ministers of religion 
hasten to fulfil the commission, Comfort 
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 
It is needful that sinful men should sorrow, 
but there is nothing desirable in sorrow on 
its own account, and God works it in his 
chosen, only that by means of it, he may 
open a fit channel into their breasts for the 
consolations of his Spirit to flow in. Hence 
Nehemiah the Tirshatha, and Ezra the 
Priest, the Scribe, and the teaching Levites, 
dismissed that great assembly of mourners 
with these gracious words : This day is 



46 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



holy to the Lord your God: mourn not, nor 
weep : go your way, eat the fat and drink 
the sweet, and send portions to them for whom 
nothing is prepared ; for this day is holy unto 
our Lord ; neither be ye sorry, for the joy 
of the Lord is your strength. 

As is the sorrow of a penitent heart, such 
is the nature of the joy to which it leads. 
Both are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There 
are joys of a different kind. There is a 
natural joy which one feels after escaping 
out of great danger, or being unexpectedly 
blessed with worldly good. There is also 
a religious joy which springs from mistaken 
impressions. These are not the joy of the 
Lord ; they are but for a moment ; they 
pass away, and leave the heart void, deso- 
late, and despairing. The joy of the Lord, 
the same which fills the eternal mind, is 
the only joy that meets the desires and exi- 
gencies of any rational being. To all ra- 
tional minds, of God, angels and men, there 
is but one true happiness. Angels are not 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



47 



happy, and men are not happy, unless they 
share the happiness of Him who is over 
all, blessed forever. With Him is the 
fountain of life ; — not a rill, not a drop of 
bliss in the universe, which that fountain 
does not yield. They who go elsewhere 
for happiness, wander into boundless des- 
erts, where all is drought, and burning 
winds, and vast desolation. What is the 
exhilaration of the animal spirits, what mere 
intellectual delight, what the pleasures of 
sin, the utmost indulgence of the lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
life, to that immortal spirit in man which 
bears the image, and pants for the blessed- 
ness of God? How can a man be called 
happy, when almost every thing belonging 
to him that raises him above the brute, is 
either wholly portionless, or is tantalized 
with what is no more suited to its nature, 
than shadows or dreams to sustain the 
bodily life ? 

And now what is this joy of the Lord ? 
It is joy arising from the same causes, ter- 



48 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



minating on the same objects, and yielding 
the same results as that which the infinite 
Being himself possesses, without measure. 
Its spring is holiness ; its objects are the 
divine perfections and works ; its results 
are the various forms of true beneficence 
and kindness. It is the joy of holy love ; 
of complacency in God and goodness, and 
of benevolence to his creatures. It is de- 
light, sensible and satisfying delight, such 
as forms the boundless and fathomless 
ocean of heavenly beatitude. As existing 
in sinners of mankind, its precursor ordi- 
narily, as has been intimated, is holy sor- 
row ; and its medium is a living union with 
Christ, by faith. It is, as shared by them, 
the purchase of the Saviour's precious 
blood, and the fruit of the renewing influ- 
ence of the Spirit of God. 

Our object, however, at present is not so 
much to describe this feeling, as to show 
the power of it, as a practical principle. 
The joy of the Lord is our strength. It 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



49 



is the spring of our greatest efficiency for 
good ; the great mover and inciter of the 
soul to holy action and achievement ; the 
sustainer also of our energies in accom- 
plishing our benevolent undertakings ; what, 
above all things keeps the mind going cheer- 
fully forward in its spiritual efforts and ad- 
ventures, and bears it on without fainting 
or weariness to a successful issue of its 
struggles and conflicts. We propose to 
offer a few remarks in illustration of this 
sentiment. 

Joy is the achiever of almost every good 
or noble thing which is done under the sun. 
There is nothing like it to make the spirit 
of man erect, resolute, persevering, patient, 
and indefatigable. Almost universally, 
where there is great labour, at least avail- 
able labour, there is also great mental de- 
light. The exceptions do but confirm the 
general principle. Men may be impelled 
to labour by ambition, by necessity, by 
fear, by avarice ; but unless their labour 
5 



50 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



becomes itself delight, what great thing, or 
noble thing, or what thing worthy of their 
pains, do they ordinarily accomplish ? Con- 
sult the sons of the muses, the toilers at 
deep investigation and exact analysis, the 
makers of those books, — the best products 
of human labour, — -that come forth into the 
community like living luminaries to pour 
the light and heat of mind through ages to 
come : Consult all successful artists, ju- 
rists, statesmen, merchants, and agricultur- 
ists; and you will find, that these several 
classes of labourers are held to their re- 
spective sorts of work, mainly by the chord 
of sensible delight or pleasurable interest 
in the object of attention. Who would an- 
ticipate brilliant success from any course 
of exertion in which the man went forward 
under some other impulse than that of 
lively interest in his work ? Where there 
is no delight, the heart will not be found ; 
and what can a man do in one sphere, when 
his heart is in another? But we need not 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



51 



enlarge on this point. All men see it, feel 
it, perfectly understand it. It is responded 
to at once from the breast of every one. 

Now, our remark is this, that the princi- 
ple is as true in its application to man's 
moral agency, as to his physical or intel- 
lectual. It is joy, for the most part, that 
makes men industrious and indefatigable 
in the fulfilment of moral claims and un- 
dertakings. This is the great principle of 
Christian attainment ; of holy zeal and en- 
terprise in the people of God. Why 
should it not be so ? Would it not be sur- 
prising and unaccountable to find it other- 
wise l Should we not ask with wonder, 
how is it that a principle which holds good 
in every other department of rational agen- 
cy, should fail in this department? Are 
the laws of nature violated in the spiritual 
kingdom ? No ; reason requires us to be- 
lieve that this is the very sphere in which, 
above all others, the efficiency of this in- 
fluence is discovered. The influence itself 



52 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



exists here in a far nobler kind, than any- 
where else. The joy of the Lord is as far 
above all other kinds of joy, as holiness is 
better than other kinds of excellence. The 
just conclusion is, that the effects of this 
joy are proportionately superior ; the con- 
clusion of common sense, confirmed by 
the universal testimony of Scripture and 
experience. It may however be useful, to 
enter somewhat particularly into an exam- 
ination of the tendencies of this feeling ; 
to inquire, in several instances, into the 
ways in which its efficacy is exerted and 
discovered. 

We observe then, in the first place, that 
joy gives life and spirit to all the mental 
powers and operations. A delighted mind 
is full of brightness and alertness, finds ac- 
tion easy, has all its faculties at command, 
and exerts them with intensity of applica- 
tion. Under the vivifying effusions of joy, 
imagination awakes, perception becomes 
acute, the range of observation is enlarged, 



r 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 53 

judgement is invigorated, memory is sharp- 
ened, taste refined, the whole soul, in short, 
is instinct with the spirit of intellectual life, 
and waits only for the orders of the will, 
to put forth its utmost energies, and to ac- 
complish the highest results of which it is 
capable. And the will itself is in a great 
degree, influenced, if not determined by 
joy. It is when men have delight in the 
things about which their volitions and pur- 
poses are conversant, that they form bold 
and firm resolutions ; then it is that they 
decide freely and promptly to enter upon 
courses of mental exertion, of which per- 
haps the thought would not have occurred 
to them in the absence of joy. We offer 
no proof of what we now affirm, but make 
our appeal directly to human conscious- 
ness. No one who reflects on the history 
of his own mental states and operations 
can call it in question. To every one the 
matter is as certain as consciousness itself. 
Nor is it inexplicable. Happiness is the 
5* 



54 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ultimate end of rational being. All senti- 
ent being indeed, of whatever nature, lan- 
guishes and pines when kept back from 
the final end of its existence ; it is, on 
the other hand, in its state of greatest 
perfection, when it perfectly enjoys that 
end. It is so with the mind of man; joy 
is its ultimate end ; in possession of that 
end, all its faculties are in their best con- 
dition. We only add, if other kinds of 
joy have an invigorating influence on the 
mind, much more must that incomparably 
higher joy of which we speak. 

Again, as this feeling imparts such life 
to the mind itself, so does it brighten by 
this means, the objects of intellection. Its 
influence in this respect is sometimes as if 
a new sun had been created to irradi- 
ate the world in which mind moves. You 
yesterday read Milton with a wearied 
heart, and fell asleep over the sublime 
glories of his page ; this morning you pe- 
rused the same page with a spirit refreshed 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



55 



by sweet and sufficient sleep, and you 
were amazed and overpowered, by its won- 
drous creations of fancy and taste. The 
world of faith, the world revealed in the 
gospel, a short time since, when you en- 
deavoured to think upon it, with a soul 
almost dead to spiritual excellence, was 
nearly as the region of emptiness and dark- 
ness ; now, when the spirit of a revival 
sheds its life through your bosom, that 
world of invisible glory eclipses the world 
of sense, and absorbs the powers and sen- 
sibilities of your being. What was the 
Holy One to you, some weeks ago, when 
you pretended to worship Him, with a dull 
and worldly heart ; what is He now, when 
a joyful sense of His excellency draws from 
your breast the ardent exhortation to those 
who know nothing of your blessedness, to 
taste and see that the Lord is good ? What 
a difference in the character of the Saviour 
at present, from what He seemed to you 
then ? The whole Bible, the whole subject 



56 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



of religion, how immensely different. Yet 
the whole of this difference is the result of 
spiritual delight in your own mind. The 
joy of the Lord then, is it not your strength ? 
If you had an angel's powers, what could 
you do with no distinct views of the objects 
with which those powers are conversant ? 

Attend, next, for a moment, to the influ- 
ence of spiritual pleasure on the perform- 
ance of devotional exercises. Who is it 
that has grown weary of his closet, his 
Bible, his domestic altar, the meeting for 
prayer, and the solemn services of the Sab- 
bath ? Could you inspect the heart of such 
a person, is it probable that you would find 
it the abode of much religious enjoyment ? 
Do you think it would be possible to dis- 
cover any thing in such a man's heart, to 
justify his saying with the spiritually minded 
Psalmist, one day in the courts of the Lord 
is better than a thousand ? No one, I am 
sure, could believe it possible. A deserter 
from the throne of grace, a neglecter of 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



57 



devotional duties, is one who takes little 
or no delight in the performance of those 
duties. To him who has heavenly joy 
springing up in his mind, the sanctuary, 
the place of social prayer, the closet, the 
solitary walk, will be the gate of heaven. 
Such a man will be inclined to pray, not 
merely thrice, nor even seven times a day, 
but to be praying always, with all prayer 
and supplication in the Spirit ; to dwell in 
the secret place of the Most High, to abide 
in the tabernacle of the Almighty continu- 
ally. The spirit of devotion never tires, 
while the joy of the Lord is its prompter. 
Day and night, it can continue its aspira- 
tions and outpourings of affection. It has 
no content in shortness, in interruption, in 
lifeless exercises. No ; the joy of the Lord 
lifts the heart up to heaven, and keeps it 
there, communing with holy angels, with 
the church of the first-born, with the spi- 
rits of just men made perfect, with God the 
Judge of all, with Jesus the Mediator, and 
with his most precious blood of sprinkling. 



58 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



We will now advert, in few words, to the 
influence of this grace on other gracious 
states of mind. We refer not to the indi- 
rect influence which it exerts upon them, by 
promoting the mind's spiritual intercourse 
with their objects ; by inclining it to heav- 
enly meditation and prayer ; but to a direct 
and necessary connexion between this and 
other holy feelings. All the gracious af- 
fections, being of the same family and inti- 
mately allied to each other, exert a recip- 
rocal influence on one another, promotive 
of each other's strength and growth; but 
there appears to be a pre-eminence in the 
friendly power of joy upon its sister graces. 
The reason seems to be, that joy, being 
the end of all the heavenly affections, when 
this feeling connects itself with them, they 
must of course be more vigorous than in 
any other circumstances. Let us illustrate 
in a few instances. Love often exists apart 
from joy, but it seldom flourishes apart from 
it. It is when the heart finds delight in 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



59 



loving, that it loves with great intensity 
and enlargement. Then it is that it gives 
itself away to the beloved object, and as it 
were loses itself in it. Hope too is fed by 
joy ; joy, in this world, being the earnest 
and foretaste of the object of hope. The 
full assurance of hope is always the effect 
of joy reigning in the soul ; it can come 
from nothing else ; no external evidence 
can produce it ; it cannot be gained from 
inference, or any witness without ; no, it 
is the beginning of heaven, the peace of 
God which passeth all understanding; this 
it is, that displaces every doubt in the soul, 
and fills the mind with certainty respecting 
its eternal blessedness; — joy does it, and 
nothing else can. Faith likewise rises and 
approximates to vision, when joy gives it 
wings ; for when the . things believed are 
at the same time rejoiced in, how can it be 
otherwise than that faith in the reality of 
those things should amount to the utmost 
confidence and boldness ? How also does 



60 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the relenting of the heart in "view of sin 
and the mercy of God abound, when the 
soul turns her eye to these objects, after 
being melted into tenderness, and sweet- 
ness, by a rejoicing sense of the beauty of 
holiness ? We could add to these instan- 
ces, if it were necessary ; but they are 
sufficient. It is exceedingly manifest, that 
it must give zest and strength to every 
good feeling of which the mind is capable, 
to have that feeling attended with conscious 
delight, and such delight too as the joy of 
the Lord, the very joy of the supreme and 
blessed God. 

Let us next notice how nobly this feel- 
ing of spiritual delight can bear up the 
mind amidst assaults of outward affliction. 
Through these assaults must all make their 
triumphant way, who at last gain entrance 
into the world of rest. As many as I love, I 
rebuke and chasten, I have chosen thee in 
the furnace of affliction. Here it is that 
strength is demanded, and what in these 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



61 



circumstances imparts strength like this 
holy joy? Hope and faith are indeed need- 
ful, but it is joy commonly which gives 
faith and hope their strength. Unattended 
by joy, they may stay up the mind in some 
sort, amidst these seasons of storm and 
darkness ; they may keep it from sinking 
into the deep waters of despair, but they 
may not do even this without a great in- 
ward strife. Many a saint going through 
the floods of trouble in the mere exercise 
of hope and faith, has meanwhile trembled 
in himself, lest by failing to retain these 
supporters, he should perish in the passage. 
But how is the scene changed at once, 
when the light of heavenly joy springs up 
in darkness ? What can any floods or fires 
of tribulation then do, to hinder the mind's 
steadfastness, and swift progress in its up- 
ward course to God ? These trials seem 
to assist rather than hinder it on its way. 
How matchless the efficacy of this divine 
joy ! It enlivens faith and hope, and all the 
6 



62 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



other heavenly affections. It is as if om- 
nipotence itself had entered into all the 
feelings of the mind. The mind becomes 
more than a conqueror. The very violence 
of fire is quenched ; and sometimes, as in 
the case of the martyr, the fiercest flames, 
under the influences of spiritual joy, not 
only lose their peculiar power, but become 
an instrument of ease, as the dying martyr 
found the flames were to him a bed of roses. 
This may savour of mere ardour to the 
externally strict religionist, but he is not 
set to judge in this case : we appeal in 
verification of what we have said to the 
Scriptures of truth, and the history of the 
church. It has been fulfilled in thousands 
of real examples of whom the world was 
not worthy. 

The power of this feeling, as evinced in 
its resistance to the influence of worldly good, 
is a further commendation of it. It is this 
influence, far more than that of outward af- 
fliction, which tries and ensnares the spirit 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



63 



of man. Indeed, what is it that constitutes 
the bitterness of affliction, but its abridging 
or destroying our enjoyment of the world ? 
Were we wholly dead to worldly good, 
small would be the power of affliction to 
disturb us. It is this then, the world's 
influence, that forms our grand encum- 
brance. Here is the great adversary of 
our souls. Here is what gives all other 
temptations their strength. It is this which 
gives the great destroyer himself all the 
advantage he has against us ; which ena- 
bles him to reach our spirits, with his wiles 
and darts of perdition ; and which makes 
us his willing captives and vassals. What 
then can most effectually secure us against 
the enchantment and tyranny of this pre- 
sent evil world ? Whatever that is, it is 
more to be desired than all things in the 
universe besides ; he who has it, would be 
a madman to part with it for the treasures 
of creation. 

What then is this priceless treasure ? It 



64 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



is unquestionably a happiness higher than 
that which the world has to offer. The 
human mind, by the nature God has given 
it, evermore seeks enjoyment. Since its 
sad perversion, by the original apostacy, it 
looks for enjoyment to the visible and out- 
ward world. That world besets it, with 
its ensnaring temptations, at the commence- 
ment of its existence, and works in it the 
fatal delusion that in worldly good lies the 
supreme blessedness. This gross delusion, 
the grand difficulty to be overcome in re- 
covering the mind to the dominion of vir- 
tue and truth, can no otherwise be disarm- 
ed of its controlling influence than by the 
presence and experience in the mind of a 
better happiness than the world can give. 
We appeal for confirmation of this remark 
to human consciousness in all the genera- 
tions of mankind. Many means have been 
employed to break the world's power in 
the heart; the world's deceitfulness has 
been set in the strongest light ; the terrors 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



65 



of eternity have been set in array against 
the idolatry of the world ; the utmost pow- 
er of motive and persuasion has been ex- 
hausted ; and to what result ? The under- 
standing has been convinced, resolutions 
have been formed, vows have been made, 
seclusion from the society of men has been 
tried, but the world's pleasures have been 
secretly loved, and if they have not been 
returned to, with increased eagerness, the 
effects of forced mortification and absti- 
nence have been worse, if possible, than 
those of indulgence itself. For levity and 
smiling deceit, and contemptuous indiffer- 
ence to divine things, there has been an 
exchange of disdainful self-righteousness 
and grave formality and bitter misanthropy. 
No, never has the influence of the world 
been truly excluded, or even interrupted, 
except where the mind has been conscious 
of having within itself a joy superior to any 
which can be obtained from created and 
temporal things. And what is such a joy, 
6* 



66 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE, 



but that whereof we speak? Besides this, 
and creature-joy, there is no other. Here 
then is the one thing needful for the efFec- 
tual resistance and banishment of the spirit 
of the world, the strength of all temptation, 
and of the tempter himself. 

This is the world's vanquisher, and how 
easy, how perfect is its triumph. The 
heart takes a farewell of the world, a glad 
and rejoicing farewell, a farewell final and 
everlasting. Why should it not ? Does 
he who eats at the table of a king care for 
the beggar's crumbs ? The man who walks 
at large enjoying the sweet influences of 
God's work's, and exulting in the con- 
sciousness of being an illustrious family's 
boast, or a nation's benefactor, does he 
envy the fancied greatness of the naked 
maniac chained to the floor of his cell? 
No more can he who tastes the joys of 
the Lord, long, while he does so, for the 
low pleasures of the world. How can he 
be tempted by appeals to ambition, whose 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



67 



ambition is already fixed upon higher hon- 
our than that of any throne in creation ; 
or by appeals to the love of possession, who 
is by enjoyment at this moment, the heir 
and possessor of all things ; or by appeals 
to the love of pleasure, whose spirit is 
drinking of the pure river of the water of 
life ? The joy of a renewed soul, when it 
first sees and adores the beauty of the divine 
character, what a poor recompense would 
the wealth and the glory of a thousand 
creations be to that soul for the loss of what 
it then feels. Oh ! there is nothing so much 
needed, in order to invest Christians with 
the mild glory of a heavenly conversation, 
as this frame of soul. Were this sacred 
feeling habitually dominant in their breasts, 
how would it adorn them in the eye of God 
and man, in all the beauties of practical 
spirituality ? Holiness to the Lord, would 
be inscribed on all their secular actions 
and pursuits ; they would be in respect to 
are for the body as the fowls of heaven for 



68 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



their food, or the lilies of the field for their 
clothing ; in room of a fretted and peevish 
spirit under the bitter disturbances of life, 
they would have enduring meekness and 
quietness ; instead of aiming by covert 
measures at self-promotion in the church, 
there would be brotherly love, in honour 
preferring one another ; and instead of that 
spirit of mutual contention and concision 
which has ever been the reproach of the 
Christian name, there would be the keep- 
ing of the unity of the Spirit in the bonds 
of peace. Oh, this is the greatest deside- 
ratum for the times in which we live ! Have 
what we may, be the signs of the times 
more animating than they ever have been, 
let revivals be more and more multiplied, 
there will not, there cannot be, the needful 
improvement in Christian character and 
temper, until God in his mercy shall send 
abroad the spirit of holy joy in the hearts 
of his unfaithful, unworthy people. 

Again, notwithstanding the advancement 



SPIRITUAL JOT. 



69 



of this age on former times, in respect to 
liberality and labours of love, there will never 
be what we judge needful in these grand 
respects to the conversion of the world, 
until the time comes for the more general 
effusion of this spirit upon the church. The 
joy of the Lord is our strength, for making 
what we deem to be the requisite sacrifices 
and exertions for the universal spread of 
the gospel. We have more than enough 
of treasure in our hands, but we have no 
heart to use it for the purpose in question. 
We admit that we ought so to use it ; we 
confess this to one another ; we confess it 
in prayer to God ; we lament over our par- 
simony ; but we still lavish our possessions 
on our lusts, or hoard them for the ruin of 
our children; and reluctantly give, it may 
be, the fraction of a tithe, to aid in pouring 
the glorious light of Christian hope over 
the wide world of heathenism. Appeals 
on appeals, the year round, are rung in our 
ears from every quarter of the earth. We 



70 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



are plied almost daily with a system of 
strenuous solicitation ; the universe of mo- 
tive is searched for materials of persua- 
sion ; but still, the mass of Christians, 
having ears to hear, hear not, and having 
hearts to perceive, yet, in this matter of 
giving for the spread of the gospel, they 
do not understand. That it is a privilege 
and a mercy to be allowed to contribute 
any thing for the furtherance of this object, 
is to them a mystery indeed : they cannot 
even comprehend the extent of duty here : 
they are wearied beyond their patience by 
incessant calls for aid ; and after all is done, 
the burden of the expense of carrying on 
the great enterprise, to which Christians 
have by profession and covenant devoted 
all they have, is borne chiefly by a few. 

Can we be ignorant of the cause of this 
insensibility to sacred obligation in the 
christian church ? Do we not see what it 
is that makes members of the church so 
merciless towards the souls of their perish- 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



71 



ing fellow-men ? Is it not palpable that 
the joy of God's salvation is wanting in 
their own hearts ; that they take little or 
no lively pleasure in the things of the Spirit ? 
If their own hearts were but moderately 
expanded, with this pure feeling, they would 
not be able to shut up their compassions 
from the wretched children of darkness, 
who, by myriads a day, are dying without 
hope. It must verily be so ; the Christians 
of this age have generally but little happi- 
ness, little sensible delight in God. They 
are not, as to any feeling of blessedness, 
happy Christians. They have little com- 
munion in spirit and feeling, from day to 
day, with the Head and members of the 
heavenly church. The first touches of this 
joy would break asunder every cord of 
avarice, and open wide the heart and the 
hand for beneficent action. There seems 
to be a tendency in all delight to incline us 
to liberality. Hence, those who solicit our 
favour, prefer making their approaches to 



72 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



us, when our mood of mind is happy. But 
this joy is the very life and strength of be- 
nevolence ; it is the parent of all good ; 
the source of every stream and drop of 
blessedness in creation. Let it enter the 
heart, and covetousness is gone out of it, 
by the same necessity by which darkness 
flees before the beams of the sun. See 
how its contrariety to covetousness showed 
itself in the first converts to the cross of 
Christ : What solicitation did they need to 
induce them to give for the extension of 
the gospel ? They gave all they had, and 
who can suppose that they could have had 
as much pleasure in appropriating it to 
themselves, as they enjoyed in parting with 
it, for the good of the common cause ? In- 
stances of the like kind, in individuals at 
least, are not wanting in modern times. 
Such instances our recent revivals have 
supplied. The joy of the Lord is the 
strength of revivals ; and who knows not 
that revivals are the church's only hope, 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



75 



both for the means and the men by which 
the world is to be converted ? 

Assuredly, we want nothing else to re- 
plenish the treasury of the Lord, and sup- 
ply all requisite resources, but that the 
hearts of Christians should cease to be so 
void of that sensible enjoyment of God, 
with which they should be always full. 
Had the church but that fountain within 
herself to draw from, rivers of treasure, 
if needed, would be at her command; 
and she could supply at once, the very 
ends of the earth, with the means of 
salvation. She would have a missionary 
in spirit in each of her sons and daughters. 
It is this blessedness I speak of, which 
looses the tongues of Christians, and makes 
them eloquent in teaching every man his 
neighbour, and every man his brother, that 
knowledge of God and Christ which is 
unto life eternal. Restore to me the joy 
of thy salvation, said the mourning Psalmist, 
then will I teach transgressors thy ways. 
7 



74 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



It would wing their feet for swift journies 
through the length and breadth of the earth, 
and the glad tidings of saving love would 
spread from land to land, and be heard in 
every island, every hamlet, every dwelling 
on the globe before the present generation 
has passed away. 

And finally, we are not sure, that if the 
joy of the Lord pervaded the christian 
church, to the degree to which it might, 
and by all means should extend, the work 
of saving the world would not go on of 
itself almost without labour. Certain it 
is, that in that condition of things labour 
would itself be joy ; but may we not be- 
lieve, (now that Christianity is no stranger 
in the earth, but has for eighteen hundred 
years, been giving infallible proof of her 
celestial descent, and her continued con- 
nexion with the place of her origin,) that 
the necessity for patient and agonizing 
effort, if the church were in the state sup- 
posed, would be superseded ? 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



75 



Heaven then would in a sense come down 
to earth ; the tabernacle of God would be 
with men ; and mankind would know and 
see the place of happiness ; and would they 
not also by the grace of God, through the 
operation of that new spectacle, be drawn 
thitherwards as of themselves? The na- 
ture of man still inclines him after happi- 
ness. The disappointment of six thousand 
years has not abated the strength of this 
indestructible propensity. Who can tell, 
but that such a sight as the general church 
of Christ, filled with the joy of the Lord, 
would, under the divine blessing, determine 
that propensity to its proper end ? That 
it is of all things the best adapted to have 
this effect, is certainly a good reason for 
supposing that the Spirit of grace, who is 
also the Spirit of fitness and order, would 
prefer it before any other instrumentality. 
For our own part, we cannot but think it 
would do more in a few years, independ- 
ently of labour, than the labour of many 



76 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ages without it. It would make the church 
a wonder in the earth. The mountain of 
the Lord's house would stand upon the top 
of the mountains ; it would be illuminated 
with divine glory ; its lustre would outshine 
that of the sun; it would enlighten the 
world; the remotest nations would see it, 
and would not all nations flow unto it ? 

The world hitherto has not regarded the 
church as the seat of blessedness. It has 
had too little reason thus to regard it. Re- 
ligion, by old report, is happiness ; but it 
is religion as contained in books, not as 
dwelling in the hearts or as shining out in 
the examples of its professors. With com- 
paratively few exceptions, since the primi- 
tive times, the lives of Christians have mis- 
represented the spirit of their religion. 
The world have judged it a sour, unhappy, 
gloomy spirit ; and they have not wanted 
occasion to do so. They who have called 
themselves Christians have seemed little 
happier than others. The great majority 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 77 

of them have practically declared their 
religion a gloomy thing, by going to the 
world itself for pleasure. Of the rest, the 
generality seem to pass through life, either 
with just enough of interest in religion to 
keep their membership in the church ; or 
in a cold perfunctory preciseness ; or in 
austerities which make religion identical 
with penance ; or in a forced driving zeal, 
which bespeaks more of fierceness than 
calm heavenly peace and joy. A few of 
noble exceptions indeed there have been, 
but to the world's eye these exceptive cases 
have commonly been lost, in the multitude 
of their gloomy or earthly minded brethren. 

Has not the church been the dwelling- 
place, rather of doubt and fear, than of 
sensible delight in God ? Is it not the way 
of even the best of her members to be 
habitually questioning in themselves wheth- 
er they be not reprobates, instead of exult- 
ing in the full assurance of hope ? Besides, 

has not the church been almost continually 
7* 



78 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



a scene of contention, and confusion, and 
bitter wrath, a dread and terror, rather than 
a charm to the world ? Oh, let it not be 
said that the experiment of what may be 
done to save the world by the influence of 
a general example of spiritual peace and 
joy has yet been tried. Enough has been 
ascertained to encourage the highest ex- 
pectation ; the successes of the first Chris- 
tians, the fruits of the individual examples 
of such blessed men as Baxter, Flavel, and 
Edwards, beget the greatest confidence as 
to what would be the result of experiment ; 
but the experiment remains to be made. 
Come the day when it shall be in full ope- 
ration. Hope is fixed on the appearance 
of that period, and that it will appear, can 
there be a doubt ? Have not the prophets 
declared it ? The Lord in his compassion 
cut short its delay ; make Jerusalem a re- 
joicing, and so a praise in the earth ; give 
to all Christians, in answer to the prayer 
of Christ, that unity of soul, in which the 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



79 



Father and the Son are united to each oth- 
er, the unity of divine love and joy. Then 
shall our unhappy world learn the error of 
its way, forsake the broken cisterns of sin, 
and come to the Fountain of living waters. 

These considerations make it manifest 
that none of those who call themselves 
Christians, ought to live so much as one 
day, or one hour, except when taking their 
rest in sleep, without the feeling of spiritual 
delight, potentially at least, in their hearts. 
It should suffice no member of the christian 
church, to maintain a conversation exter- 
nally irreproachable, to live in honesty and 
in credit with mankind, and to observe the 
stated times and services of religion ; no, 
not even, if in addition to this, he sets an 
example of liberality. This is but a low 
standard of religion, and no man who has 
any just concern for the cause of God in 
this world, or for his own salvation, can 
content himself with it. A man may live 



80 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 

in this manner, and live in darkness, in 
coldness, in fear, respecting his own soul; 
and his fear may be realized. Every Chris- 
tian on earth ought to be a specimen of 
the happiness Christianity is adapted to 
impart; a reflector by example of the light 
of heavenly joy. He ought to be not only 
a conscientious, a devout, a liberal Chris- 
tian, but a happy Christian also ; happy in 
God and the spirit of heaven, all the day 
long. He owes it to the cause of his 
Saviour, to himself, his family, his breth- 
ren in the faith, the world of mankind, to 
live a serene, cheerful, and heavenly life. 
This is plainly a just inference from the 
preceding remarks ; and it is an inference 
which divine authority confirms. To re- 
joice in the Lord, is a command urged 
with great earnestness upon all Christians. 
Scripture is exceedingly strenuous in its 
mode of enforcing this command : Rejoice 
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 
What has been said may show us that 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



81 



there is a sufficient reason for this require- 
ment; and is it not strange indeed, that 
Christians, whose characteristic spirit is 
submissiveness to the divine will, should 
scarcely seem to blame themselves for an 
habitual disregard to it ? What more could 
God have done, than he has done, to give 
his people grounds and occasions of joy? 
Has he kept his glory out of their view ? 
Has he not shown himself good enough ? 
Could he have loved them more than he 
has done ? Could he have made greater 
sacrifices for their sakes ? Could he have 
gone to greater lengths to win their com- 
placency, than to give up his own dear 
Son, for the ransom of their souls ? Could 
he have added a greater blessing after that, 
than to send down his Spirit to dwell with 
them forever ? Could he have been more 
explicit and more full in his assurances of 
kind feeling and tender love ? Could he 
have given them better promises, or spread 
before them brighter prospects, or called 



82 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



\ 



them to greater privileges, or to a more 
honourable service ? Has not God seemed 
in all his dispensations and doings towards 
his people, to have had distinctly in his 
purpose, that they should want nothing 
which infinite love could supply, to call 
forth their joy and gladness of soul ? When 
by his Apostle, he lifts up the voice of au- 
thority, commanding them to rejoice in 
the Lord always, — can they be justified 
in replying to him, we have no causes for 
joy ; the state of mind required demands 
an object suited to produce it, and no such 
object has been presented to us ? 

There are, it may be thought, subjective 
difficulties in the way. But can it be that 
there are insurmountable difficulties of this 
kind, when obligation to rejoice is in full 
force upon the mind ? "Who can believe 
this ? Surely nothing but mental insanity, 
or such a condition of the body as sets 
aside self-control, in either of which cases, 
obligation ceases, can be a just apology for 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



83 



not exercising holy joy. So abundant are 
the promises of divine grace, that if we are 
not straitened in ourselves, we may be 
able to keep up a calm and cheerful and 
heavenly frame of spirit in any circumstan- 
ces of worldly discomposure which do not 
produce a real derangement of intellect. 
The triumph of some Christians over such 
circumstances has been complete ; nervous 
debility, severe sickness and pain, and the 
very agonies of dissolution have not been 
able to keep them from rejoicing in the 
Lord. If any feel incredulous in respect 
to this matter, let us ask them to consider 
whether if they walked as closely with God 
as did Baxter, or Paul, or Enoch, they would 
be likely to retain their present doubts. 
Alas, we destroy the health of the body by 
our reckless way of treating it, and then 
make bodily indisposition an excuse for 
keeping the soul in darkness and leanness 
and spiritual distempers. 

The plain truth is this, that what hinders 



84 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



our joy is allowed sin. The power of sin 
to do this is great. This little hand, said 
Whitefield, placing his hand near his eyes, 
as he was preaching in the field, while the 
glorious sun was flooding creation with his 
beams, — this little hand hides all the lustre 
of the sun from my eyes ; and so a little 
sin may involve the soul in darkness, though 
the spiritual world be all bright as heaven 
itself. But should we therefore be con- 
tent to live in darkness, or set ourselves 
with more resolution against all forms, and 
degrees of sin ? The latter is the course 
of duty, and is it not also the course of 
wisdom ? Is it idle to ask the question, 
What manner of persons ought we to be 
in all holy conversation and godliness ? 
Why is it, we do not understand, that our 
only concern in this world is to keep a 
guileless spirit, a conscience void of offence ? 
Alas, that we should suffer such things as 
love of lucre, or of pre-eminence, or of 
sensual pleasure, or jealous and envious 



SPIRITUAL JOY. 



85 



and irascible feelings, to rest in our bosoms, 
and stay there from day to day, and week 
to week, and month to month, in the place 
which should be ever sacred to the gracious 
affections ; in the temple of the Holy 
Ghost ! Alas, that we should be so infre- 
quent, so cursory, so cold in prayer; so 
seldom in fastings, so formal and lifeless in 
the duties of the sanctuary : that we should 
be so uncircumspect in speech, so little intent 
on walking in the Spirit ; in all the pursuits 
of life, so regardless of the great principle 
of Christian morals, which demands that 
we do all things, even to eating and drink- 
ing, to the glory of God: that we should 
have so little fellowship, (might we not 
rather say, such disagreement ?) with Paul, 
in his purpose to do but this one thing all 
his life long, — forgetting the things behind, 
and reaching forth to those before, to press 
towards the mark, for the prize of his high 
calling ? Here is the secret of our want 
of religious joy, of our spiritual doubts and 
8 



86 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 

fears ; and also of our readiness to justify 
them. But shall such things vitiate and 
set aside the law of Christ's kingdom be- 
fore recited, rejoice in the Lord always, and 
again I say rejoice ? 

No, this is as irreversible as any other 
statute of the eternal realm. It has been 
given out, not to be neglected, but obeyed. 
It is the duty of all Christians to rejoice 
evermore, and the importance of their ful- 
filling this duty, no tongue can fully tell. 
Immortal souls, in countless multitudes, 
have gone to an undone eternity, in conse- 
quence of its not having been fulfilled ; the 
salvation of the world still lingers from the 
same cause ; for want of holy joy in the 
church, all the means of grace in operation 
are comparatively ineffectual ; the triumph 
of the gospel is kept back, on this sole ac- 
count ; and the gloominess and sadness of 
Christians, keep up a sort of rejoicing 
among the spirits of darkness. 



IIL 



DOING GOOD. 



PART FIRST. 



That portion of mankind who acquire dis- 
tinction and influence, ordinarily choose to 
themselves some profession or course of 
life, in which they think they can exert 
themselves to the best advantage. Some 
prefer the life of a soldier ; some devote 
themselves to politics ; some to science and 
literature, some to the arts, some to trade, 
and some to the sacred interests of reli- 
gion. Of those who take the last as their 
appropriate calling, a part labour in the 
field of intellectual theology ; a part choose 
a life of prayer and contemplation ; and a 
part employ themselves in works of active 
goodness. 



88 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Had men, previously to our Lord's ap- 
pearance in the flesh, been called on to 
consider how he would probably occupy 
himself while an inhabitant of our world, 
different anticipations, doubtless, would 
have been conceived on that subject. 
While he had not as yet lived among men, 
there was room for a diversity of opinion 
as to what probably would be the man- 
ner of his life. Some we know were pre- 
pared by their tastes and their hopes to 
conclude at once that he would be a great 
military commander, and would fill the 
world with the fame of his battles and his 
victories. Some doubtless would have ex- 
pected that he would take chief rank among 
economists and statesmen. Some would 
have thought all pursuits unworthy of him, 
but those of philosophy and learning. And 
some enamoured themselves of sacred sci- 
ence, would have deemed it reproachful to 
a person of such high and intelligent sanc- 
tity, to suppose that his pursuits would be 



DOING GOOD. 



89 



any other than those of a retired and la- 
borious student and commentator of the 
inspired writings. 

His life on the earth is now past. The 
Word has been made flesh, and has dwelt 
with men ; and how he spent his days, af- 
ter his entrance into public life, we are 
particularly informed. A summary of the 
account which has been given us, is con- 
tained in the simple declaration of the sa- 
cred historian, that he went about doing good* 
He found himself in an afflicted and needy 
world, and he devoted himself to works of 
mercy. Mankind about him were ignorant, 
and he taught them ; they were depraved, 
and he reclaimed them ; they were in sor- 
row, and he comforted them ; they were 
diseased, and he healed them ; they were 
oppressed, and he delivered them. He per- 
formed these offices of benevolence, not 
only indirectly by the agency of others, 
but by his own personal and indefatigable 
labours. He did not fix himself in one 
8* 



90 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



place, and require those who needed his 
aid to find him out, and come to him, and 
wait his convenience ; but led an itinerant 
and migratory life, seeking out spheres and 
occasions of beneficent action, by explora- 
tory and pedestrian journeys. He passed 
in this manner, not a portion only, but the 
whole of his public life. Nothing could di- 
vert him from this course ; — not ungrate- 
ful neglect from the objects of his kind- 
ness ; not his deep personal necessities ; 
not the greatest providential discourage- 
ments; not unrelenting persecution and 
constant peril of life. He met unkindess, 
opposition and danger in every form ; he 
met them unmoved; and having lived for 
man, he closed his peculiar course by as- 
cending the cross as his substitute, and dy- 
ing to redeem him from the guilt and the 
curse of sin. 

In this manner did Christ pass his days 
on earth : who would previously have con- 
cluded that such would have been his way 



DOING GOOD. 



91 



of life ? Yet here let us ask two questions : 
First, was it not a manner of life which 
became him ? On this point there can now 
be but one opinion. The whole world 
must give the question an affirmative an- 
swer. Whatever might have been thought 
before, now that we know what our Sav- 
iour's life was, it appears so manifestly 
becoming the purity and elevation of his 
character, in all respects, that we would 
never think of bringing any other mode of 
life into comparison with it, as proper to 
be pursued by him. The life then of Christ, 
was such as became him. The other 
question is, Was it such, as, in their meas- 
ure, and making due allowance for differ- 
ence of relations and circumstances, would 
become his disciples ? Although we are 
well aware that this question is already an- 
swered also in the affirmative, by the 
conscience of the reader, we do not deem 
it needless to set forth the evidences on 
which an intelligent answer to it must rest* 



92 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Let us, however, to prevent mistake, 
premise one explanatory remark. Possi- 
bly the reader has already raised in his 
own mind, inquiries like the following : 
How can I imitate the life of Christ? I 
have not his resources, and his powers. 
He had no domestic cares and responsibili- 
ties. It is impossible I should be all the 
time directly occupied, in what are called 
works of beneficence. I shall, moreover, 
deny the faith, and be worse than an infi- 
del, if I do not make provision for myself 
and my household. These things are in- 
deed so ; but let them not be perverted. 
Be it, that you cannot do as much good, 
or spend as much time in works of direct 
beneficence, as did your Lord and Master ; 
you can put yourself absolutely under the 
law of beneficence ; and make doing good 
the grand object of your life ; and while 
faithful in accomplishing that object, to the 
duties of your calling, and the claims of 
domestic relatives, you may give the entire 



DOING GOOD. 



93 



remainder of time and substance to deeds 
of active goodness ; and thus may you 
have the whole of life stamped with benefi- 
cence. The extent to which men can em- 
ploy themselves in direct offices of benefi- 
cence, varies with different persons. Some 
must give almost their whole time to pro- 
viding for their families or themselves. 
Some can spare several hours of every 
day ; and some have their whole life at 
their disposal, and can devote themselves 
absolutely to works of mercy. All, how- 
ever, can live under the control of the be- 
neficent principle ; all can be actuated by 
that principle, and not merely by blind in- 
stinct or cold responsibility, even in domes- 
tic duties and labours ; all, in this way, can 
make the whole of life one scene of benefi- 
cent action. The demand is, that every 
Christian be, to the extent of his ability, a 
practical philanthropist; be such in his 
heart, such in his closet, such in his family, 
such in his neighbourhood, such in the 



94 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



world ; in short, that he make doing good 
to his fellow-creatures, however related to 
them, the distinct object and purpose of 
his existence on earth. This is the de- 
mand ; what Christian, with the consent of 
his own conscience, can resist it ? Let us 
now prosecute the subject. 

I. It is one of the known ends of Christ's 
living and acting in the presence of his 
disciples, to show them by his example 
how they ought to live, and how they must 
live, if they would make good their claim 
to be regarded as his sincere followers. 
He left them an example, that they should 
follow his steps. Peculiar as his way of 
living was, he went before them in that 
way as their exemplar and leader. They 
saw in his singular life of beneficence, 
what commanded their wonder, their con- 
fidence, their worship ; but they also saw 
the pattern to which their own lives 
should be conformed; a pattern shown 
them expressly for their imitation. We 



DOING GOOD. 



95 



would say this with emphasis, because it 
seems to have almost escaped considera- 
tion. It has been commonly thought that 
Christ should be imitated by his disciples, 
in his meekness, patience, gentleness, and 
other passive virtues ; but has it been the 
genera] opinion that they should also re- 
semble him in that course of self-denying 
beneficence, the fulfilment of which fur- 
nished the occasions of his exercising these 
qualities ? If Christians have been resigned 
under the bereavements and trials which 
are common to man, they have been com- 
mended as being like their Lord. We do 
not deny the justness of the commendation, 
as far as there is ground for it ; but simply 
ask whether the resemblance should hold 
in nothing more than the manner of meet- 
ing common providential discipline ? Should 
it be limited to, or chiefly consist in the 
passive virtues ? Christ was contented, 
meek, unresisting, prayerful ; and so should 
be his disciples. But Christ also lived not 



96 RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 

for himself, but bare the sorrows and afflic- 
tions of man, and gave his strength and life 
to works of active goodness : Should not 
his disciples do the same ? Where do we 
learn that his example in this respect, was 
not set to be imitated ? It has been ad- 
mired ; it has been greatly praised ; why 
should it not have been followed ? 

II. It is the universal conviction, that 
such a life as that of our Saviour's in such 
a world as this, is the highest and best 
which can be lived; and hence the un- 
questionable fitness between his life and 
the perfection of his character. But this 
shows demonstratively that Christ's mode 
of life should be chosen by his followers. 
Had it not been his design to show them 
by his manner of life, what theirs should be, 
yet they could not intelligently and seriously 
reflect on that specimen of living among 
men, without feeling a conviction that they 
ought to imitate it. It is unquestionably 
the best mode of spending life, and the ra 



DOING GOOD. 



79 



tional nature of man inclines him to what 
he knows to be the highest and best. The 
desire of perfection, however far he may 
be from perfection itself, is inwrought in 
his being. Let a man do a thing, and then 
find that he might have done better, and if 
true to his nature, he will regret that he 
did not perform the better deed. Let him 
have a greater and a less good before him 
soliciting his preference, and he will do 
violence to himself if he does not choose 
the greater. The perfection, therefore, of 
our Saviour's life, instead of being a reason 
why it should not, is the highest possible 
reason why it should be imitated by his 
followers. And of the force of this reason 
they cannot but be sometimes conscious. 
As they look upon that life of perfect be- 
neficence, the very law of their being 
prompts them to imitate it; and if they 
decline, or just in so far as they do de- 
cline, that law condemns them for doing 
so : And many a professed Christian passes 
9 



98 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



his lifetime under a consciousness more or 
less vivid, that he is hastening to the retri- 
butions of eternity with the sentence of 
this law in full force against him. How 
many members are there of the christian 
church, who while they live for self-ad- 
vancement or self-indulgence, and cannot 
help remembering how different from theirs 
was the life of Jesus Christ, know better 
than if an angel's tongue had told them, 
that there is no way of justifying their mode 
of passing away their days. They may 
not reflect very definitely on the subject; 
but the subject though kept at a distance, 
and in the shade, has a face of terror to 
their hearts, and haunts them in the night 
season, and sometimes troubles them amid 
the activities and pursuits of the day. 

III. That Christ's way of living in this 
world should, as far as practicable, be chosen 
by his followers, is the natural inference 
from the essential conformity, the spiritual 
oneness, which, according to Scripture, 



DOING GOOD. 



99 



subsists between them and him. They 
were from eternity, predestinated to be 
conformed to his image, and this, their high 
election, is made sure in the day of their 
second birth, when they are taken out of 
the corrupt human mass, and fashioned into 
the likeness of the great Refiner and Puri- 
fier himself. Now what should be hence 
concluded respecting their external conver- 
sation and behaviour among men ? Like 
Christ, in spirit or the inner life, shall they 
be unlike him in the manner of their out- 
ward life ? Let due allowance be made for 
remaining imperfection and the weakness 
of the flesh ; still there is substantial one- 
ness with Christ in the inner man of the 
heart, and shall there not be substantial 
oneness with him also in conduct and ex- 
ternal developement ? Is natural expecta- 
tion in this case groundless ? Is the con- 
nexion here dissolved between the cause 
and its effect? Must we not adhere to 
the rule, by their fruits ye shall know them, 



100 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



though by doing so, we should be obliged 
to admit that the malignant remark of infi- 
delity is true, that there are no such per- 
sons as Christians on earth ? 

IV. That the life of Christians m this 
world should, like that of their Lord, be a 
life of beneficence, is a conviction which 
must at once seize any mind, that with a 
just idea of Christian character, associates 
a recollection of the real state of the world. 
There was nothing arbitrary in Christ's 
choosing the mode of life he pursued ; and, 
there is nothing arbitrary in the requisition 
that Christians should imitate it. The ex- 
ample of Christ was but true virtue devel- 
oping itself fitly in the circumstances in 
which he found himself when his dwelling 
was with men. It was a form, which holi- 
ness, carried out into just action, in such 
a world as ours, naturally assumes. Holi- 
ness is benevolence ; but how can benevo- 
lence with eyes to see, and ears to hear, 
and feet to walk, and hands to help, refrain 



DOING GOOD. 



101 



in such a world as this, from active and 
self-denying exertions to do good ? Wheth- 
er we might innocently give ourselves up 
to quiet contemplations, or private indul- 
gences, or projects for increasing our per- 
sonal possessions, if we were among a race 
of sinless and happy beings, we need not 
inquire ; but can we pretend to benevolence, 
and live for any such purpose, while we 
have our residence amidst such scenes and 
circumstances as those in which we are 
passing our days ? Too few even of Chris- 
tians appear to be aware of their circum- 
stances. How little do any of us reflect 
that we cannot go abroad into the streets 
without passing by some habitation of beg- 
gary, of disease, or of death ; or what is 
worse, of ignorance and crime, where be- 
nevolence might be doing works of good- 
ness, at which angels would renew their 
songs of praise ? While we are sitting 
together in the sanctuary, or rejoicing in 
the society of our friends, or pursuing our 
9* 



102 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



gainful business, how seldom or how slightly 
do we think that men not far distant from 
us, are groaning life away in want and 
distress, in dungeons and in chains ; and 
that widows and orphans, paupers, pris- 
oners, and others ready to perish, far and 
near, and all the world over, are by their 
deep necessities crying aloud for our pity 
and our assistance ! And more heart-rend- 
ing still, that nearly the whole world are 
lying in the chains and under the curse of 
sin ; and generation after generation are 
led captive of the great destroyer, at his 
will, into the prisons of eternal death ! But 
should Christians be thus unmindful that it 
is in such a world they have their dwelling ? 
If nothing could be done by them to alle- 
viate human wretchedness, they might well 
forbear beneficent effort, and live for other 
purposes than to do good to men. But as 
this is a world of hope as well as of sorrow, 
and as we have, through the bounty of 
Providence and the sacrifice of Christ, 



f 

DOING GOOD. 



103 



ample remedies for both the temporal and 
spiritual ills of man, where is our benevo- 
lence, if we do not exert ourselves to make 
full proof of these remedies ? Must it 
not astonish the holy angels to see benev- 
olent beings in our circumstances unem- 
ployed in doing good ? Is it strange that 
in these circumstances our Saviour should 
have devoted himself to works of mercy 
and compassion ? Where is the vigour of 
piety in the church, when but here and 
there can a Christian be found who lives 
only to be useful to his perishing fellow- 
men, and he passes too often for little bet- 
ter than a well meaning enthusiast ? 

V. As the will or main purpose of God 
concerning his people, in all that he has 
done and is doing for them, by his Son, 
his Spirit, his servants, his word and ordi- 
nances, and his high Providence, is their 
sanctification or personal holiness ; and as 
holiness in such circumstances as ours 
naturally takes the form of beneficence, 



104 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



it is evident that what God is chiefly intent 
upon, in all things respecting us, is that our 
life should be a life of active goodness. 

But we are not left to learn this by in- 
ference. The Scriptures declare it ex- 
pressly and with the strongest emphasis. 
It is the import of that saying of Christ, the 
saying not so much of his lips on any one 
occasion, as of his whole ministry and ap- 
pearance among men, — " it is more blessed 
to give than to receive." What else too is 
the import of our being created in Christ 
unto good works ; and of Christ's giving 
himself for us, that he might purify unto 
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works ; and of that superlative praise which 
every part of Scripture conspires to bestow 
upon the very life of which we speak ; 
prophets, apostles, and louder than all the 
rest, Christ himself, joining in the inspired 
chorus of commendation ? And above all, 
what is the drift and meaning of that grand 



DOING GOOD. 



105 



prediction of our Saviour,* that acts of be- 
neficence will be the test and touchstone of 
eternal destiny, at the last great day ? Has 
not God spoken decisively enough as to 
what it is, he would have his people employ 
themselves about, during the short season 
of this mortal life ? 

VI. It is a high argument why all Chris- 
tians should make the life of Christ the 
model of their own, that it is only by means 
of practical beneficence on their part that 
Christianity can advance among mankind. 
That it is the design of its author that this 
divine religion should become universal, 
and that it will in fact become so, should 
be no more doubted than that it is true, and 
is alike needful to all men. Further, that 
it is to become universal by the instrumen- 
tality of Christians themselves, is as cer- 
tain as the truth of any fact or doctrine 
which it contains. But the precise sort of in- 
strumental influence which Christians should 

* Matthew xxv. 



106 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



mainly rely on for its propagation, seems 
not to have been well understood or well 
considered since the gospel's primitive tri- 
umph. That triumph was, under the divine 
blessing, the achievement, not of discus- 
sion, or controversy, or intellectual labours, 
but of active goodness. Christians, — not 
the Apostles only, but private Christians of 
both sexes and of every condition, — in 
accordance with the last solemn charge of 
their Lord, devoted themselves collectively 
and personally to the spreading of Chris- 
tianity over the world. And what was 
their plan for carrying the work on ? They 
had no plan but such as the living spring 
of benevolence in their own breasts sug- 
gested to every one ; the plan of holy love 
longing to honour its great Benefactor, by 
living, and if needs be, dying as he did, for 
the present and eternal well-being of man- 
kind. They had none of our means and 
facilities for combined action ; no press, 
almost no books ; (the Christian faith, it 



DOING GOOD. 



107 



has been truly said, is not unknown to have 
spread all over Asia, ere any gospel or 
epistle was seen in writing ;) no connexion 
with, no countenance from the State ; no 
opportunities even for free intercommunion 
among themselves ; no patronage but that 
of heaven ; no impulse of sectarian zeal ; 
no motives of personal advantage. They 
went individually to work, under the influ- 
ence of one spirit, — that spirit in their 
Saviour, which made him such a martyr in 
the cause of man. It is granted and should 
not be overlooked, that there were imper- 
fections in the first Christians; they had 
their personal faults ; there were errors, too, 
among them ; their doctrinal faith, in some 
very important points, was imperfectly 
defined, and in others it was erroneous; 
they were annoyed by philosophical spec- 
ulations ; some of their great teachers held 
notions which, had they lived in other 
times, would have subjected them to excis- 
ion from the church. But they abounded 



108 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



in that charity which is the end of the gos- 
pel, and is better and more enduring than 
faith ; they loved one another, and they 
loved and lived for the welfare of their fel- 
low men. And marred as the record of 
their acts is by various sorts of blemishes, it 
is, as a whole, so brightened and sanctified 
by the accounts it contains of their match- 
less beneficence, that the annals of the 
world furnish no parallel to it. How pleas- 
ant would it be, were there time, to collect 
in one view, the evidences of their strange 
philanthropy ; but we must not stay to at- 
tempt this ; let us only call to mind the suc- 
cess of their mode of evangelism. The 
world in requital for their self-sacrificing 
charity, accounted them as sheep for the 
slaughter, and pursued them with fire and 
sword, and every means of death and tor- 
ture ; but the influence of their beneficent 
spirit could not be overcome ; it prevailed 
over whatever was adverse among them- 
selves ; it covered the multitude of their 



DOING GOOD. 



109 



imperfections ; it turned the very violence 
of the world in their favour ; and their 
religion, after three centuries of bloody 
persecution, became the religion of civil- 
ized man. Their mode of spreading Chris- 
tianity should be adopted in our day. It 
is the appointed mode, the best mode, the 
only adequate mode. It should be adopted 
forthwith throughout every part of Christen- 
dom. Some seem to think that Christianity 
cannot spread until our theology becomes 
purer, and our biblical literature is im- 
proved ; some suppose the reformation of 
civil government and men's notions of hu- 
man rights an indispensable preliminary. 
Some ascribe the general stagnation of the 
gospel to one thing and some to another ; 
but whatever of truth there may be in the 
opinions of different persons on the subject, 
the main difficulty is palpably manifest. 
Let reformation proceed as fast as possi- 
ble ; whatever is wrong in theory or prac- 
tice, in church or State, should be cor- 
10 



110 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



rected; but let all be reformed, and re- 
formed perfectly, that needs reformation ; 
still if Christians do not, as once they did, 
give their own selves to the work of the 
Lord, and by individual examples of active 
goodness, by living and labouring in their 
own persons for the temporal and eter- 
nal welfare of mankind, make their light 
so to shine before men, that they seeing their 
good works may glorify God, we should not 
think that the conversion of the world is 
drawing nigh. So Scripture in many 
places* teach us ; and so should we con- 
clude from our own reflection. It is not 
enough that we support societies for reform- 
ing and enlightening mankind ; this we may 
do and yet individually be specimens not 
of self-denying beneficence, but of luxuri- 
ous and splendid living ; we must all, male 
and female, old and young, make doing 
good in the world the purpose of life, the 

* Matthew v. 13, 14, compared with 16. 1 Peter ii. 12. 
John xv. 8, etc. 



DOING GOOD. 



Ill 



object of existence. The world may be 
adequately supplied with the Scriptures 
and other books ; with schools, and church- 
es and preachers ; but all will not suffice. 
The general unbelief of men will never be 
overcome while Christians themselves seem 
in truth unbelievers, as they always will 
seem in the eyes of the world, while their 
lives are not those of active beneficence. 
Their religion demands such lives of them, 
and demands this so strenuously, that how 
they can sincerely believe it themselves, 
and live so much like others, the world 
cannot be made to comprehend. Let them 
insist as they please that their principles 
should be judged of irrespectively of their 
practice, the world will not yield to them 
here : they must have deeds, not profes- 
sions ; examples, not precepts ; charity, 
not knowledge. The doctrines of our re- 
ligion must put on the living forms of love, 
and move to and fro among men in these 
winning forms, and demonstrate their di- 



112 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



vinity before the eyes of all, by fruits of 
goodness after their own kind. The doc- 
trines, — that men are exposed to endless 
miseries, — that Christ died to save them, — 
that they must, in order to be saved, repent 
and believe the gospel, — that the things 
of this life are vanity, and eternity alone 
worth a serious thought, — that death is 
followed by the judgement, and the judge- 
ment by doom in hell or heaven, unchange- 
able and everlasting — these simple doc- 
trines must assert themselves not in books 
and creeds only, but in correspondent prac- 
tice ; and no practice is correspondent, 
the world will always think, short of a life 
devoted to the business of saving men. 



IY. 



DOING GOOD. 



PART SECOND. 

VII. It is thought by some, as has been 
already remarked, that Christianity can 
never prevail till our theology is improved. 
" Our interpretation of Christianity," it is 
said,* "may be good, and may be pure 
enough for private use ; it may be good in 
the closet, good as the source of the mo- 
tives of common life, and good as the 
ground of hope in death, and yet maybe al- 
together unfit for conquest, and triumph." 
We shall not controvert this supposition. 
Let it be assumed that our interpretation of 
Christianity is so unfit ; that " indefinite mis- 



* Fanaticism, p. 514. 

10* 



114 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



conceptions affecting the divine character 
and government, or that certain modes of 
feeling, generated in evil days and still un- 
corrected, exist and operate to benumb the 
impulsive and expansive energies of the 
gospel." Be the fact so ; — it is a conclusive 
argument in favour of that improvement in 
our practical religion on which I am insist- 
ing. If the world must wait in its sin and 
ruin, until our theological views be correct- 
ed, we should be at the business of cor- 
recting them with all possible diligence. 
But how are they to be corrected ? Is there 
any room for hesitation in giving an answer 
to this question ? How is our theology, 
our interpretation of Christianity, to receive 
the needful improvement ? By revising the 
ancient systems of divinity, comparing them 
with the modern, and framing other systems 
under the advantages of greater light, and 
a purer philosophy ? By philologoical stu- 
dies, and the application of juster herme- 
neutical principles in explaining the sacred 



DOING GOOD. 



115 



text? By a minuter analysis of subjects, 
by free discussion, by controversy, and de- 
bate ? By the multiplication of books, and 
writers, and theological schools ? Without 
meaning to say aught against such expedi- 
ents, we cannot but ask, if these be the means 
on which we must chiefly rely? How 
much longer then must the world remain 
perishing for lack of vision ? After trying 
such means more than a thousand years, 
behold Christians still without a sufficiently 
pure theology ; divided, and angrily con- 
tending among themselves about doctrine ; 
some anathematizing and seceding from 
others ; and new sects and theories multi- 
plying almost daily. Has the right way 
been followed in order to attain and propa- 
gate just views in theology ? We might 
pause in our reply, if a ^oice from heaven 
had not put the reply into our lips. A mis- 
take, a strange mistake has been made. 
The light of true knowledge in divine 
things, shines with greater purity and bright- 



116 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ness, not in the cloister of the recluse, the 
study of the scholar, the groves of philoso- 
phy, the halls of sacred science, hut in the 
open and wide field where active goodness 
performs its journeys and its labours. On 
that field assuredly, more than any where 
else on earth, rests the sunlight of spiritual 
truth. There, is to be found the light of 
life, in which heavenly minds rejoice, the 
light of God's countenance, the illumination 
of the spirit, — that which alone deserves 
to be called light. He it is who best 
knows the truth, and will know it more and 
more, who doeth the will of God. It is 
not he who studies or thinks, but he who 
loveth, that knoweth God, for God is Love. 
If Christians would cease their unseemly 
strife among themselves, and subject their 
hearts and minds to the dominion of holy 
love ; — that is, if they would put the truth, 
as far as they know it, into just practice ; — 
they would forthwith find themselves walk- 
ing in the light, and all would soon be 



DOING GOOD. 



117 



light, both in the church and in the world. 
Let no one think this an extravagant or an 
idle remark. It will bear to be reflected 
on. Let the first principles of the gospel, — 
that men are ruined sinners, that Christ 
died to save them, that by repentance and 
faith in Christ they may be saved, that the 
renewing Spirit has come, and that God 
waits to give effect to Christian prayer 
and pains ; — let these first truths live and 
flourish, instead of being almost disowned, 
in the lives of Christians ; and what a 
commentary on our general Christianity 
would then be furnished; what obscurity 
would be removed from the Scriptures ; 
how soon would philosophy correct its 
mistakes, and repent of its vain self-reli- 
ance ; the watchmen would see eye to eye ; 
the confusions and contradictions of ages 
would be gone ; the sun of heaven would 
rise on the earth ; and the waves of spi- 
ritual knowledge would roll from land to 
land, like waves of the mighty deep. 



118 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Yet let no one misunderstand us, as in- 
tending by these remarks to discourage 
intellectual labours; far otherwise is our 
object. Our meaning is, that these and all 
other labours in the life of a Christian, 
should be developements of charity, the 
fruit of the beneficent principle. Paul stu- 
died and wrote, as well as journeyed and 
toiled, night and day, in direct efforts to 
save men ; but he sought to save men, not 
less diligently for his deep meditations and 
divine manuscripts ; nay, these meditations 
and manuscripts themselves, were the di- 
rect product of the same spirit of benefi- 
cence which suggested every undertaking 
of his life, and carried him triumphantly 
through it. We mean that it should be with 
every Christian in this respect, (teacher, 
pastor, missionary, as well as private 
church member, male and female,) ex- 
actly as it was with Paul the Apostle. If 
they think, if they write, if they speak, 
the beneficent principle must guide their 
thought, their pen, their tongue ; and in 



DOING GOOD. 



119 



all the rest of their life, it must be too no- 
torious to be questioned, that they live in 
no form for themselves, but for the good of 
mankind, and the glory of God. We mean 
that it is only where and while it is thus 
with Christians, that there is any hope for 
much improvement in sacred science, from 
any efforts and arrangements which they 
may make to that end. Let theology be 
cultivated, however elaborately, apart from 
labours of love, the end for which all 
Christian truth was revealed, — apart from 
self-denying exertions to save men, — apart 
from the effusions of the Spirit and the 
scenes of revivals, and it will be a theology, 
an interpretation of Christianity, to be 
anathematized as another gospel, — the 
wisdom of an aspiring philosophy, invested 
with the garb, and claiming the sacredness 
of the Gospel of Christ, in order the more 
effectually to subvert and explode it. 

VIII. Whether we must have a purer the- 
ology or not, before Christianity can tri- 



120 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



umph, there can be no doubt that there must 
be a general and a great improvement in 
Christian character; and what is the way to 
effect this improvement, is an inquiry, infe- 
rior in importance to no other that can occu- 
py the attention of Christians of this age. 
To give the true answer to it, is to propound 
the doctrine we are enforcing. — Two plans 
for improving Christian character, have 
been tried ; one aiming to accomplish the 
object more directly, the other more indi- 
rectly ; one, rather by leading the mind to 
introverted thought upon its own imper- 
fections and wants, and to immediate and 
self-stimulated reaches after higher attain- 
ments ; the other rather by turning the 
mind's regards to things out of itself — 
things adapted to enlarge and exalt it, by 
their intrinsic excellence. The one in 
short, relying chiefly on a life of medita- 
tive abstraction and devotion ; the other, 
on a life consecrated to offices of active 
goodness. On the first plan, the cloister, 



DOING GOOD. 



121 



the still and peaceful closet, is the chief 
sphere of effort ; on the second, the wide 
and evil world, where all is suited to put 
living virtue to the test, and excite the be- 
neficent principle into constant exercise. 
The former of these plans has been adopt- 
ed by the recluses and pietists of all ages ; 
the latter was the plan of Christ and his 
first disciples. The latter unquestionably 
is the true plan. It accords with the gen- 
ius of vital religion. The first pulsations 
of divine life in the soul of a Christian are 
pulsations of the beneficent principle. That 
same pure love which he then begins to 
exercise towards God, whom he does not 
see, spontaneously flows forth also, in af- 
fectionate desires and kind actions towards 
his fellow-men, whom he does see; and he 
cannot but long that the new and divine 
joy of which he is conscious, should be 
shared by every creature under heaven. 
What course now should be taken by the 
new born child of grace, to attain to a full 
11 



122 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



and large developement of the spiritual af- 
fections and powers ? Should he shut him- 
self out from all intercourse and connexion 
with a dying world ? or devote himself to 
the salvation of that world ? By doing the 
first, would he not stifle the very breath of 
the spiritual life, and make it impossible 
for him ever to become a full grown and 
vigorous Christian ? By doing the last, 
and continuing as he begins, he would al- 
ways retain the first simplicity of his spirit, 
and become, certainly, a specimen of Chris- 
tian manhood and strength, which the eyes 
of all saints in heaven and earth, would re- 
joice to behold. This we know from ex- 
press and manifold testimonies of Scrip- 
ture* would be the result ; and it is not 
difficult to understand how the result, un- 
der the divine blessing, would come to 
pass. Self-consecrated to doing good, as 
the end of his existence upon earth, the ex- 
cellency of his chosen object of life, must 

* 2 Peter, i, 8, etc. 



DOING GOOD. 



123 



by a law of his being, be continually and 
more and more imprinting itself on his 
heart, and thus, after a while, he cannot 
but acquire great elevation of character, 
and be a man of God. He will as a matter 
of course, we might almost say of necessity, 
avoid those things which commonly hinder 
growth in grace, and mar God's likeness 
in the soul. He can take no part in reli- 
gious contentions, the great bane of spirit- 
ual improvement ; or in those philosophi- 
cal refinements and subtilties, which work 
doubt and corruption in the mind. He has 
no time to give to those idle conversations 
and companies, which grieve the Holy Spi- 
rit, and pollute the conscience. In the 
best manner possible, he has armed himself 
against the insidious invasions of avarice, 
and the pride of life, the irascible passions, 
the impure affections, and all those fleshly 
lusts which war against the soul. The 
purpose for which he lives, raises him too 
near to heaven, in the tone and cast of his 



124 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



spirit, to admit of his being much annoyed 
by these temptations. We hardly need add 
that it also exposes him most advantageous- 
ly to the influence of whatever tends to 
elevate and ennoble the soul. — He will be 
led by his object of life, more constantly 
than any other man, to consult the sacred 
Scriptures ; and he will consult them in a 
manner better adapted than that of the 
most minute philologist, to inform him of 
their true meaning, and bring all his facul- 
ties and feelings under their sanctifying 
power. This results from the coincidence 
of the end for which he lives, with the 
end, — the just spirit and scope, of the 
Scriptures. As they were given not to 
afford materials for criticism and comment, 
but that the man of God might be tho- 
roughly furnished unto good works, he who 
abounds in such works, learns by experi- 
ence the true meaning of Scripture ; and 
what knowledge is equal to that gained by 
experience ? 



DOING GOOD. 125 

Besides, he who pursues a life of benefi- 
cence, is constantly obeying the truth ; and 
of all modes of inculcating truth on the 
heart, obedience to it is the most effica- 
cious. It is, as it were, an impersonation 
of truth, giving it a shape and a body, 
which, better than any sermon, shows what 
it is ; and being done by the man himself, 
it being his own action, that truth manifests 
itself by, who has equal advantages for un- 
derstanding and feeling it? Such a man 
is all the while preaching to himself, and 
preaching with a power which an angel's 
tongue might not be able to exert. — And 
he stands before all others, too, in the ex- 
ercise and benefit of prayer. His daily 
consideration of the state of the world, his 
personal intercourse with human want and 
wretchedness, gives him constantly new 
matter for prayer, makes him particular 
and minute in his requests, and sincere 
and importunate in his manner of prefer- 
ring them ; and his seasons of devotion, 
11* 



126 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



instead of being passed in supplications 
about his own wants^ and comforts, and 
these perhaps, for the most part, perfunc- 
tory and insincere, are like those of Christ 
and the first Christians, which we read of 
in the Gospel and in the Acts. Time forbids 
that we should pursue this amplification. 
Enough has been said to show that it is 
not in the still and shady recess, but abroad 
in the habitations of men, in the haunts of 
misery and guilt, amidst privations and 
sufferings, not self-inflicted, but incurred 
in doing good, that the formative influences 
exert themselves, which make Christians 
after the pattern and standard of the prim- 
itive times. Who can think that such a 
character as that of Paul or John, or the 
Blessed Jesus, the true exemplar of all who 
bear his name, might have been formed 
any otherwise, than amidst efforts and suf- 
ferings for the good of mankind? There 
are in our day a Gutzlaff and a few names 
more, of great hearted Christians ; and in 



DOING GOOD. 



127 



what circumstances have these persons ac- 
quired their unwonted conformity to their 
Lord ? Let us give good heed to the an- 
swer : " In labours more abundant ; in 
journeyings often ; in perils of waters ; in 
perils of robbers ; in perils by the heathen ; 
in perils in the wilderness ; in perils in 
the sea ; in weariness and painfulness ; in 
watchings often ; in hunger and thirst ; in 
cold and nakedness." Never did, never 
can, a life of contemplation make such men 
as GutzlafF, and Martyn, and Brainerd. 
We shall lament in vain over the imperfec- 
tions in Christian character, while Chris- 
tians content themselves with their present 
style and standard of living. All our cen- 
sures and complaints ; all our lectures on 
prayer and fasting ; all our associations for 
spiritual improvement; all our measures 
and contrivances of reform, will be in vain, 
until Christians can be induced to rise out 
of the dust of a self-seeking, and self-in- 
dulgent way of life, put on the garments 



128 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



of love, and make works of active goodness 
their business under the sun. 

IX. We might omit to mention, as an 
argument to a life of beneficence, that it is 
of all lives the happiest, if we merely had 
respect to the happiness which Christians 
themselves would find in this way of living. 
But there is a vastly higher reason why this 
consideration should be urged. Christi- 
anity will not triumph while Christians in- 
dividually and collectively remain as they 
are, and since the primitive times, have 
been, in respect to happiness. Christianity 
in document is peace, joy, blessedness 
itself ; need we say what for the most part 
Christianity is, and has been in this respect, 
in the lives of its professors ? So long as 
the world shall see Christians disquieted 
in spirit ; corroded by earthly cares ; at 
variance among themselves ; harassed by 
misgivings and fears respecting their own 
salvation, and apparently finding little or 
no pleasure in the services of their religion 



DOING GOOD. 



129 



and the promises and prospects which it 
sets before them — so long as the Christian 
church presents such a spectacle to the 
world, its testimony and its labours in be- 
half of Christianity, will be of small avail. 
The reason lies deep in the nature of man. 

As the unhappiness of Christians arises 
from the faintness and indefiniteness of the 
divine image in themselves, and as this 
proceeds from their not exercising the 
grace given them, in courses of beneficent 
action, a life of beneficence would cure 
the evil. It would abolish the effect by 
removing the cause. It would fill Chris- 
tians with the peace of God, by nourishing 
and strengthening the life of God in their 
souls. But it would contribute to their 
happiness also, in a more direct manner. 
There is often unspeakable joy in the mere 
exercise of the beneficent principle. It is 
more blessed, many times, to give than to 
receive, in the very act itself of giving. 
But it is the fruit of the action that yields 



130 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the greatest blessedness. He who per- 
forms a work of true benevolence, opens 
for himself a fountain of pure joy, which 
will continue to flow when the heavens and 
the earth are no more. Even if the work 
be eventually unavailing to him or them for 
whom it was done, it will not be so to the 
doer. God's word and power, are the se- 
curity that he shall be blessed, and blessed 
forever in his deed. What delight must 
this consideration of itself give to the man 
who lives only to do good ? He has, how- 
ever, other sources of joy. His beneficence 
is not in vain in respect to the objects of 
it. God is with the man who gives him- 
self to works of goodness, and adds to 
those works, an effectual blessing. And 
what joy can be compared to his, who, as 
he works, finds almighty goodness work- 
ing with him, and giving him success ; the 
hearts of widows and orphans singing for 
joy ; the disconsolate comforted ; the bro- 
ken-hearted healed ; poor and degraded 



DOING GOOD. 



131 



families raised to respectability and peace ; 
captives and prisoners rejoicing in their 
chains, if not delivered from them ; the 
dead made alive again ; the lost found ; is 
it possible for the human mind to know joy 
like his, whom God makes the means of 
results like these ? The great German 
astronomer had a strange ecstasy of delight, 
after making his celebrated discovery : — 
" Eighteen months ago," said he, " I saw 
the first ray of light, three months since I 
saw the day ; a few days ago, I saw the 
sun himself, of most admirable beauty. 
Nothing can restrain me. I yield to the 
sacred frenzy. I dare ingenuously confess 
that I have stolen the golden vessels of the 
Egyptians, (alluding to the ideas of Ptolemy 
on the same subject,) and I will build of 
them a tabernacle to my God. If you 
pardon me, I rejoice ; if you reproach me, 
I can endure it ; the die is thrown, I write 
a book to be read, whether by the present 
or by future ages, it matters not. It can 



132 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



wait for a reader a century, if God himself 
waited six thousand years for an observer of 
his works :" — A most remarkable instance 
of pleasure in intellectual pursuits. But 
yet a mere flash, and of an inferior kind, 
compared with the pleasures of beneficence. 
Those pleasures are of a celestial refine- 
ment, and endure, and increase, until they 
become an ocean of eternal joy. 

X. We will terminate these remarks 
with a single suggestion more. He only 
lives for eternity who lives a life of benefit 
cence. Other men may obtain perhaps 
the pardon of their sins, may themselves 
be saved, as it were by fire, while their 
works are burnt up. The man of active 
goodness and he alone, is using his present 
faculties and possessions, so as to make 
them positively productive to himself in 
the end. The provision which men make 
for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof ; their 
efforts to raise themselves in worldly so- 
ciety, to become great and renowned, and 



3BOING GOOD. 



133 



to lay up treasures on earth ; their very 
meditations and prayers, which are not the 
fruit of the beneficent principle, transmit 
no good influences, as far as themselves are 
concerned, beyond the grave. The results 
of all other human doings, as to their au- 
thors at least, either terminate with the 
brief day of this life, or follow them into 
eternity as sources of pain. All, all is 
gone, as to their authors, when their au- 
thors themselves pass away hence. What, 
as to their authors are all the great acqui- 
sitions and achievements of the mighty 
dead, who did not spend life in doing good ? 
The great writers of ancient and modern 
times ; the Homers, the Maros, the Tul- 
lys, the Shakspeares, the Miltons, the Ba- 
cons, what as to them, except in so far as 
doing good was their business, are the 
products of their genius and labour ? They 
are gone where their splendid or profound 
performances can avail them nothing. Their 
works have not followed, and never will 
12 



134 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



follow them. Soon also their works them- 
selves will perish. Who then in sober 
truth is now living wisely for himself? 
Who is the prudent man, that foreseeth 
the evil and hideth himself '/ Who is lay- 
ing up for himself a good foundation against 
the time to come ? Who is it that with 
any self-consistency, can censure the spend- 
thrift, the reckless profligate, as a waster 
of time and strength and substance ? Is 
man truly an immortal being? Is there 
another life, and a judgement after death ? 
Is there truth in the Bible ? Is the reli- 
gion of Christ no fable ? That is the ques- 
tion on which this argument turns: Give 
that question an affirmative answer; and 
all, all are wasters, — wasters of whatever 
they are, or have, — who are not using what- 
ever they have and are, so as to glorify 
God by doing good to man. 

It is not impossible that some will deem 
the strain of these remarks high wrought 



DOING GOOD. 



135 



and visionary, — the fruit of ardour rather 
than intelligence, of enthusiasm more than 
good sense. To those who are disposed 
to think thus, we would observe, that 
though it would doubtless be as unavailing 
as it would be unbecoming in us to say 
a word in vindication of our own sobriety 
of mind in this discourse, we have certainly 
a right to expect that our readers will show 
themselves sober-minded in judging of the 
considerations which have been set before 
them. We have a right to request, and do 
respectfully and earnestly request, that they 
review these considerations one by one, 
and specify which should be discarded as 
defective in logic or in strength, and where- 
in thus defective. Or, if they prefer doing 
so, let them take the sum and conclusion 
of the whole, our main position, and 
set it aside, if it can be done, by con- 
clusive counter-evidence ; or at least let 
them adduce against it, one definitely 
expressed objection. Let them mention 



136 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



one good reason why the life of Christ and 
the lives of his followers should not be alike 
stamped, in their respective measures, with 
active beneficence. This surely they are 
not unreasonably requested to do, before 
they discard the subject on the pretext, 
that there is more of heat in it than light, 
more of passion than judgement. — This, 
however, they know they cannot do. They 
may object to the position on other grounds ; 
on the ground that it makes true practical 
Christianity a rare thing in this world ; on 
the ground that it implicates the church in 
deep guilt and reproach ; on the ground 
that it casts a gloomy shade over their 
own hopes and prospects for eternity; but 
not on the ground that it is not sufficiently 
fortified by evidence, or demonstrably true. 
They may dislike, but they cannot disprove 
it. It is the doctrine not of man, but of 
Jesus Christ. They contend, not with 
the sentiment of an individual, or a sect, 
but with that only true and safe religion 



DOING GOOD. 



137 



which the Son of God came down from heav- 
en, lived and died to propagate among men. 

If the reader has had the impression 
during the process of these remarks, that 
however incontrovertible and important 
their main position, the task of enforcing it 
was injudiciously undertaken, as being well 
nigh hopeless, Let us say, that we are not 
unapprized that there are apparently strong 
reasons for the impression he has felt. 
We have indeed asked ourselves the ques- 
tion, Will a single man be persuaded by 
any thing we can say, to make Christ's life 
on earth the model of his own ? It has not 
been thought necessary to do this in order 
to be a Christian ; it is in fact done by al- 
most no one; a very different notion of 
practical Christianity has been common; 
and whose mind will be changed by our re- 
marks on this subject? But we could not 
refrain, on the other hand, from asking 
ourselves also questions such as these : 
Is not Christianity destined to triumph ? 
12* 



138 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Are the irreligion and idolatry of man- 
kind to be always so nearly universal ? 
Shall the church always pray to no pur- 
pose, — Thy kingdom come, thy will be 
done on earth as it is in heaven ? But 
by what means shall this prayer be an- 
swered ? Will it be done by miracles ? 
Will it be done by philosophy and specu- 
lation and writing ? Will it be done by 
controversy and contention, and by multi- 
plying secessions and sects? Will it be 
done by religion in creeds and on parch- 
ment, however widely diffused ? Will even 
preaching do it, if the doctrine of Christ be 
not illustrated by a correspondent life on 
the part of his disciples ? Is it not the 
persuasion of all who earnestly expect 
the conversion of the world, that a great 
change, a change adapted to arrest general 
attention, and produce general conviction, 
will take place in the common way of living 
among Christians ? Are not some already 
anticipating such a change ? Has not prep- 



DOING GOOD. 



139 



aration been made for its commencement ? 
Nay, are there not indications that its com- 
mencement is about taking place ? Should 
we then be faithless on this subject, or be- 
lieving ? Is not God in the midst of his 
people with the residue of his Spirit ? Is 
he not able to reach and enlarge their 
hearts ? Can he not fill them with faith 
and the Holy Ghost, as once he did? Can 
he not, as once he did, make them epistles 
of Christ, and send them abroad every 
where to shed living light, and lift up their 
living voices, amidst benighted and dying 
men? Why should we be despondent? 
Away, our unbelieving fears ! Let us lift 
high the standard of Christian living, and 
summon all professed Christians with a bold 
and strong voice to conform their lives to 
it. We have their principles, their con- 
science, their covenant with us. We have 
their God and their Saviour on our side. 
Let us then affectionately tell them the 
truth. Let us rebuke their conformity to 



140 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the world, with all the love, but also with 
all the pungency which we can command. 
While they enjoy, as they have a right to 
do, their ceiled houses, their domestic de- 
lights, their honours, and their other good 
and pleasant things, let us not refrain to 
remind them of their relations to him who 
had not where to lay his head ; and to the 
world around them lying in sin and ruin ; 
and of their solemn engagements and vows 
to follow the footsteps of their Lord, and to 
live and die as he did for the salvation of 
mankind. 

Finally, if the reader should admit his 
obligation and his responsibility, but deny 
his power to live as Christ did among men, 
we would ask him to consider what he 
means by this denial. — If by a deficiency 
in power he intends a deficiency in himself 
apart from, and independently of Christ, 
let him retain and cherish this conviction ; 
but let him not rest upon it as a sufficient 
excuse. He is not required to enter on 



DOING GOOD. 



141 



the course set before him* relying solely, or 
relying at all, upon himself. On the con- 
trary, he is in the strongest terms warned 
against doing so : — " Cursed be the man 
who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his 
arm." The only resources on which he is 
called to depend, are the infinite resources 
of grace in Jesus Christ. Does he mean 
to say that these are not adequate ? If 
this be not his meaning, let him abandon 
his plea, and confess himself, in respect to 
power, as well as wisdom and righteousness, 
complete in Christ ; and being thus com- 
plete, let him forthwith exercise himself in 
the strength of God his Saviour, to exem- 
plify his Saviour's spirit in a life of active 
beneficence. Let him do this, or show 
what right he has to assume the name, or 
indulge the hope of a Christian. 



V. 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



Exertions for extending the gospel among 
mankind have been steadily increasing for 
more than thirty years ; but the conversion 
of the world still lingers, and the souls of 
men at the rate of twenty millions a year, 
pass to their eternal doom without the 
knowledge of a Saviour. To resolve this 
appalling fact into the sovereignty of God, 
no more exempts Christians from respon- 
sibility for it, than the same short way of 
explaining all the miseries of time and eter- 
nity, exculpates those accountable agents 
whose voluntary conduct is the procuring 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



143 



cause of those infinite evils. God governs 
his moral kingdom, not by direct interpo- 
sitions, or isolated acts of power, but by fixed 
principles or rules of conduct, obedience or 
disobedience to which, is optional to the sub- 
jects of his empire, and the consequences of 
obeying or disobeying which, are not ordi- 
narily precluded, by deviation, on his own 
part, from his stated mode of administration. 
Hence impenitent transgressors "eat of 
the fruit of their own way and hence 
also, the just results of negligence and 
unfaithfulness on the part of Christians, 
however disastrous, usually come to pass. 
When men, by refusing to observe the un- 
changeable ordinances of infinite wisdom 
and goodness, bring ruin upon themselves 
or others, what propriety or relief is there 
in referring the natural effects of their in- 
excusable disregard of duty, to the sover- 
eign pleasure of God ? God does indeed 
sit in the heavens, enthroned over crea- 
tion. His foreknowledge, his counsels, 



144 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



and his plan, comprehend all his own works, 
and those also of his creatures ; yet not 
so as to interfere either with the freedom 
and responsibleness of his creatures, or 
with equitable variations in his own distri- 
butions of reward and punishment, of co- 
operative or corrective power, according 
as the conduct of his creatures may de- 
mand the one or the other. The times 
and the seasons God reserves in his own 
power ; and because he is infinitely wise 
and good he will do nothing, whether in 
judgement or mercy, out of time ; yet this 
does not hinder, but that if his creatures 
would fall in with his provisions and com- 
mands, he would take a very different course 
in his providential dispensations from that 
which, on the whole, it becomes best for 
him to pursue, owing to human perverse- 
ness and disobedience. God would not 
employ himself in sweeping the world from 
age to age with the besom of destruction ; 
he would not delay for thousands of years 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



145 



those promised effusions of his Spirit which 
are to send peace as a river, and righteous- 
ness as the waves of the sea, over the face 
of the whole earth, if he were not, so to 
speak, laid under a necessity to do this, by 
the refusal of his people to hearken to his 
commandments. 

Christians have not been ignorant of God's 
arrangement for converting the world. They 
have known that the settled plan of Heaven 
respecting this great work, demands, that 
the knowledge of the gospel be universally 
diffused, that it be diffused by Preaching, 
and that Preachers are eminently the gift of 
God, and are to be obtained from him by 
prayer. That these are fixed principles of 
the divine government fn reference to this 
matter, is as well known in the Christian 
church, as any doctrine or precept of 
Christianity. Such has been, such is, and 
such will be the divine order in this case. 
God is a rock ; his work is perfect. He 
does not revoke, he does not relinquish 
13 



146 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



what he has once announced as his estab- 
lished rule of operations, in any depart- 
ment of his dominion. Christians know 
that his plan for evangelizing the world, 
requires them to seek the needed supply of 
preachers by prayer ; they know, but they 
have most imperfectly fulfilled what it re- 
quires at their hands. The natural conse- 
quences of their neglect have not been hin- 
dered. For almost eighteen hundred years 
mankind have been going without holiness, 
and of course, without hope, to eternity, at 
an average of not less than twenty millions 
a year. Only the mind that fills eternity, 
comprehends the evil involved in such a 
result; yet the tremendous result has fol- 
lowed, and will continue to follow, while 
Christians refrain from falling in with the 
divine arrangement. It cannot but be, that 
God regards this immense evil, with just 
such emotions as perfect knowledge of it, 
is adapted to produce in a perfectly benevo- 
lent mind ; but still, in infinite goodness, 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



147 



he permits it, since worse than even this 
evil, would be any deviation from the order, 
which with his eye open upon all the secrets 
of futurity, he thought proper to adopt. 
This is not a subject for speculation ; it is 
no more to be disputed than that God is a 
truly benevolent being. As well call in 
question the reality of the past or the pre- 
sent, as this affirmation. It is the affirmation 
of a fact, and a fact which to every Chris- 
tian should be a principle of life. We 
ought not stand wondering why God has 
adopted such a plan, or scrutinizing into 
the secret reasons of the divine determina- 
tion, or giving heed to any suggestion of 
an evil heart of unbelief ; but take to our- 
selves the reproach of past delinquency, 
and coincide forthwith and forever, with 
the unchangeable counsel and purpose of 
the Most High. As soon should we attempt 
to arrest the course of nature, or contend 
with the elements, or evade the conse- 
quences of rushing into the fire, or plunging 



148 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



in the sea, as doubt the goodness of God's 
moral enactments, or hope to avert the 
penalty of resisting them. 

Not that we are required to be submis- 
sive, even in such high cases, to mere ar- 
bitrary power. "We are not to think 
the matter determined as it is, in all such 
cases, by mere will and pleasure, without 
a reason; which were an imagination al- 
together unworthy the supreme wisdom : 
but that there are reasons of mighty force 
and weight; or certain congruities, in the 
nature of things themselves, obvious to the 
divine understanding, which do either wholly 
escape ours, or whereof we have but very 
shallow, dark, conjectural apprehensions ; 
as he that saw men as trees ; or as some 
creatures of very acute sight perceive what 
to us seems invisible. And yet these occult 
and hidden reasons and congruities, have 
been the foundation of constitutions and 
laws that hold things more steadily than 
adamantine bands, and are of more stability 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



149 



than the foundations of Heaven and earth."* 
The submission demanded is but an exer- 
cise of confidence in infinite wisdom and 
goodness. 

We are most impressively instructed as 
to our duty in this matter, by a passage in 
the life of our Saviour. When on a certain 
occasion he lifted up his eyes on the multi- 
tudes around him, it is said, he was moved 
with compassion on them, because they 
fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep 
having no shepherd. The compassion of 
Him who came down from Heaven to die 
for a lost world, was not a feeble principle, 
and it was not now without its appropriate 
manifestations. Yet what steps did he take 
for the relief of perishing men, destitute of 
all means of salvation ? He could easily 
have supplied the requisite means, by a 
direct exertion of almighty power. He at 
whose bidding the worlds arose out of noth- 
ing, could have done this ; but an arrange- 

* Howe. 

13* 



150 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ment respecting all such cases, had been 
adopted by the divine will, and his compas- 
sion, though large and mighty as his infinite 
mind, was in absolute subserviency to that 
arrangement. He would not indulge that 
compassion, by departing from the divinely 
appointed way of obtaining the means of 
grace. He could have died for these mul- 
titudes ; he did in fact die for them, but 
though for their sakes he did not count his 
life dear to himself, he would not violate 
the order of God's moral kingdom. He 
turned to his disciples, and devolved upon 
them the responsibility of procuring by their 
prayers, what the exigencies of these men, 
and of countless thousands in no better 
condition, so urgently required : The har- 
vest, he said, is plenteous, but the labourers 
are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
harvest, that he will send forth labourers 
into his harvest. 

And this was but one exemplification of a 
principle which uniformly controlled the 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



151 



conduct of our Lord. He would work no mir- 
acle, he would in no way interfere with any 
principle of the divine government, to re- 
lieve his own necessities however extreme. 
Stones would have become bread at his 
command, but though he had been forty 
days without food, he preferred a continued 
endurance of hunger, to employing any mode 
of removing it, not coincident with the ap- 
pointed provisions of the divine goodness. 
The amazing sorrows of his last hours were, 
with distinct knowledge of them all, prefer- 
red by him, to the slightest infringement of 
the divine economy concerning himself: 
Not my will, but thine be done. What les- 
son was ever so enforced, as that nothing 
is so much to be deprecated as setting 
aside the established order of the divine 
proceedings? How unreasonable has been 
the hope of Christians, that God would 
supply the necessary number of the heralds 
of salvation, or prevent the natural conse- 
quences of a deficiency, when because of 



152 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



their criminal omission to comply with his 
requisition, he could not have done so, 
without abandoning a procedure approved 
by infinite wisdom and goodness, and pub- 
lished as a fixed principle of his adminis- 
tration ? 

Important as are the reformations which 
have taken place in the church, little in the 
way of improvement has been effected, 
compared to what remains to be done. 
What enlightened spiritual man would not, 
in the midst of all the favourable changes 
and advances of these times, hail with ex- 
ceeding great joy, the dawn of the era for 
the fulfilment of that saying, " Behold, I 
make all things new ?" Even what has been 
reformed needs reformation still. O for 
a radical reform in the feelings of Chris- 
tians in respect to their personal obligations 
and responsibilities, particularly as touch- 
ing the present subject. If the results of 
faithfulness on their part would have met 
completely the wants of mankind, the defi- 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



153 



ciency both in the character and the num- 
ber of the ministry, from age to age, meas- 
ures, from age to age, the extent of their 
unfaithfulness ! And then, what beings in 
the universe are so deeply involved in 
blame as the followers of Christ ? — This 
view of the subject gives impressions of the 
general imperfection of Christian character, 
which cannot but lead to the profoundest 
self-abasement; and it will therefore, it is 
to be feared, be generally unwelcome, and 
perhaps be strenuously resisted. But yet 
it seems impossible to deny that it is the 
just view. Either Christians are thus un- 
measurably in fault, or an imputation ap- 
pears evidently to rest on the Divine Cha- 
racter. Let the matter be closely investi- 
gated, and the just result be laid to heart. 
Is it not, in sober and palpable truth, a di- 
rect impeachment of God's self-consistency 
and sincerity, to allege, that though he has 
sworn by himself that he has no pleasure 
in the death of any man, though he has 



154 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



made an atonement for human sin by the 
sacrifice of his own Son, though on the 
basis of that wonderful atonement he has 
required an offer of salvation to be made 
to every creature, though he has prescribed 
the means by which that requirement is to 
be fulfilled, though he has appointed the 
prayers and sacrifices of Christians as the 
proper pre-requisite to the obtainment and 
operation of those means, and finally though 
he has urged Christians to offer their pray- 
ers, with an earnestness and force of per- 
suasion which only infinite benevolence 
could have prompted, still, when no diffi- 
culty has been in the way on account of 
failure on the part of Christians, He him- 
self has failed to grant the necessary instru- 
mentality, for the accomplishment of his 
own great paramount design ? Whatever 
reproach may be cast upon Christians by 
adopting the opposite of this conclusion, 
hesitation to adopt it is manifestly irrever- 
ence towards the great and dreadful God. 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



155 



Let God be true, but every man a liar. 
The real fact in this case ought to be pro- 
claimed throughout the churches, though 
the effects should be universal consterna- 
tion and despair. Had Christians aspired 
to the just standard of their duty, the true 
dignity of their calling, had they complied 
with the divine arrangement and thus ful- 
filled the indispensable conditions of divine 
wisdom and goodness, that boundless com- 
passion of God which spared not for man's 
sake his only begotten Son, would doubt- 
less long ago have supplied the world with 
the ministry of reconciliation, to the need- 
ful extent, and filled it with the light of the 
knowledge of his glory. 

Is it improper to ask, why has not some- 
thing been done to produce in the Christian 
church a just sense of the fact and the evil 
of the delinquency in question ? Amidst 
all the benevolent operations and enterpri- 
ses of the age, has not this delinquency 
been unlamented, and almost overlooked ? 



156 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



What zeal has been shown, what bold 
measures have been employed, to supply 
what has been wanting here ? What rous- 
ing appeals have been made, what loud 
alarms have been sounded, what expensive 
agencies have been sustained, what mighty 
eloquence has lifted up its thundering voice, 
throughout the Christian world, in order 
to awaken attention to this prime defect ; 
to overwhelm the public mind with a sense 
of its true enormity ; and to effect a reforma- 
tion at this deep seat of evil — a reformation 
which would have almost superseded the 
necessity of further reforming efforts ? An 
excitement by such means has been pro- 
duced in favour of many benevolent de- 
signs, the results of which may be partially 
seen, in our flourishing institutions of reli- 
gion and learning, and our various projects 
for human improvement; but is there not 
cause to fear, from our unrebuked uncon- 
sciousness of dependence on God, and our 
allowed negligence in calling on the Lord 



CO-OFERATION WITH GOD. 



157 



of the harvest himself, to send forth labour- 
ers into his harvest, that these institutions 
and projects rather than his own almighty 
arm, are our chief reliance for the accom- 
plishment of the great object of desire? 

It is hoped that it will not be thought 
amiss, to inquire further, whether our small 
success does not also indicate on what 
ground our hopes are mainly resting ? Our 
success, it is true, would be an ample re- 
ward for ten thousand times more labour 
than we have bestowed, and our praises 
should ascend to God evermore, for what 
he hath graciously wrought by our means ; 
but still we cannot but see that the work of 
spreading the gospel comparatively lingers 
in our hands, and it is high time that we 
had searched out the reason. It is sea- 
sonable and meet, that we inquire among 
ourselves, and inquire of the Lord, why it 
is, that now, after Christianity has been 
eighteen centuries giving proofs of its di- 
vinity, and the civilized world owns its truth, 
14 



158 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



millions of Christians with the mighty aid 
of the press, and of extensive combinations, 
and of a moral machinery scarcely suscep- 
tible of improvement, are yet, after a lapse 
of thirty years, but little more than prepar- 
ing to do, what the first feeble disciples of 
the cross in the same period, under the 
greatest outward disadvantages, to a good 
degree accomplished." They ventured on 
the undertaking amidst almost universal 
scorn and persecution, as Peter, upon the 
boisterous waves, in a dark and stormy 
night, to go to his master ; relying for suc- 
cess not on their own resources, nor any 
visible or assignable secondary causes ; 
but on the promised unseen supports of 
the universal Preserver ; willing to abide 
by any issue which might result from such 
absolute, self-renouncing trust in Him. 
They first waited at the throne of grace, 
in united, importunate, incessant prayer, 
until they were " endued with power from 
on high," and then, full themselves of the 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



159 



Holy Ghost and of faith, they sought addi- 
tions to their number, of men similarly 
endowed ; and thus they advanced against 
the powers of darkness in the strength 
of God, conquering and to conquer, until 
the fruits of their meek and beneficent tri- 
umphs overspread the face of the world. 
They depended both for means and success 
on the Spirit of God ; and the reality and 
extent of their dependence, were proved by 
a boldness and daringness and force of 
movement, of which self-reliance, or the 
countenance of princes and potentates, 
would never have suggested the concep- 
tion. Is it uncharitable to suspect that 
the confidence which they reposed in the 
invisible arm of the Almighty, is misplaced 
by modern Christians in the power of the 
pen and the press, in the patronage of the 
rich and the great, in our noble associations 
of benevolence, and in the progress of the 
mind and of science ? 

There is at least irresistible proof that 



160 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



too little reliance is placed on the immedi- 
ate influences of divine grace. Here it 
may not be irrelevant to advert to the de- 
gree of interest which is ordinarily taken 
in the monthly concert meeting for prayer. 
That degree of interest is certainly, to 
some extent, a decisive test of the nature 
of the impression existing in the minds of 
Christians, in respect to the utility of 
prayer, in carrying forward the work of 
evangelizing the world. The existence of 
such a concert shows that united prayer 
is understood by the church to be one of 
the means which God has designated for 
the conversion of the world ; but judging 
from the manner in which that concert is 
observed generally by Christians, the con- 
clusion can scarcely be avoided, that it is 
depended upon as a means less than almost 
any other. The complaint has been long 
made, and hitherto made in vain, that there 
is no religious meeting, statedly attended 
by Christians, which they attend so reluc- 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 161 

tantly, and in such small numbers. What 
a strange announcement this, concerning a 
race of Christians who have professedly 
undertaken the business of extending the 
gospel through the earth ! If the reason 
be that ministers take but little pains to 
make the meeting interesting and profit- 
able, what is this but additional proof of a 
most deplorable insensibility in all con- 
cerned, to the efficacy of prayer ? How 
can the inference be resisted, that in the 
business of saving men, prayer is really 
deemed by Christians of but very small 
consequence ? The anniversary of a be- 
nevolent society is commonly an animating 
occasion : it sometimes draws together an 
assembly which there is no room large 
enough to accommodate ; but our meetings 
for prayer, and especially that meeting 
which by common consent of Christians of 
almost every name, is appropriated exclu- 
sively to the business of praying for the 
world, are marked by dulness, and coldness, 
14* 



162 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



and gloominess, and fewness of numbers ! 
Is not this a most afflictive, most alarming 
fact, to those who are aware that not be- 
nevolent associations however important, 
but the outpouring of the spirit of prayer, 
is the appointed precursor of the millenni- 
um ? Alas, may it not be that while we stand 
rejoicing at the increase and strength, and 
enlarging operations of these noble socie- 
ties, the Spirit of the Lord may have se- 
cretly blown upon them in his wrath, as 
he did for a like reason upon the splendid 
temple and ritual service of the Jews, be- 
cause, they, rather than Himself, are de- 
pended on for the salvation of the world ? 
May not all our bright prospects from the 
benevolent character of the age be overcast, 
and another and darker age of infidelity 
succeed, and the world be afterwards con- 
verted by a generation of Christians who 
like those of the primitive church, shall go 
forward to the work, renouncing all trust 
in an arm of flesh ; and with their lives in 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



163 



their hands, throw themselves, in the exer- 
cise of such boldness as led Peter to step 
out upon the angry waves, on the unseen 
agency of the Holy Spirit, looking to that 
agency by urgent and ceaseless prayer, 
to grant whatever resources of grace, or 
talent, or treasure, may be requisite for 
the accomplishment of their high purpose ? 

Though the remark may seem almost to 
trespass on delicacy, yet faithfulness to the 
great interests of God and man seems to 
require it to be made, that another test of 
the spirit of the church in reference to the 
point before us, is afforded by the prevail- 
ing measure of ministerial attainment and 
faithfulness. It is not to be doubted that 
the general character of the ministry, com- 
pared to that of the preceding age, is much 
improved ; but still, if there be a corres- 
pondence between the church's prayers 
and endowments in this respect, her defi- 
ciency in the feeling of dependence on God 
for the supply of ministers of the gospel, is 



164 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



unquestionably great. The existing min- 
istry, however superior, are manifestly far 
below the standard which the exigences of 
these times seem to hold forth to all aspi- 
rants for the sacred office. The order of 
ministers needed for the conversion of the 
world, is one formed exactly and in all res- 
pects, — except inspiration and the power to 
work miracles, — on the apostolical model. 
The same work substantially is to be done 
now, which was undertaken by the apostles ; 
and men as full of the strength and the 
graces of the Holy Spirit as they were, are 
apparently as indispensable. It is only 
when the appropriate business of the church 
is misjudged of, that a doubt on this sub- 
ject can be indulged. If that business 
were to keep up religion to the low com- 
mon level to which it has attained among 
men, ministers of the common stamp might 
suffice ; but to pervade the immense wastes 
of heathenism with the genuine spirit and 
influences of Christianity, — to have the 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



165 



gospel sounded throughout the countries 
of Europe, throughout China, Hindoostan, 
Burmah, Persia, Arabia, the coasts and 
unexplored recesses of Africa, and all the 
forests of America, and islands of the ocean, 
as it is in the most favoured parts of our own 
territory, — to achieve this end, men of the 
same spirit are wanted, as those who under 
the direct commission of Christ, preached 
the word of salvation with the Holy Ghost 
sent down from heaven. Few such men, 
however, are now in the field. We have 
intelligent men, and pious men, and labo- 
rious men ; but the work to be done de- 
mands men filled with all the fulness of 
God; men like Paul, or Brainerd, not 
needing, from the abundance of the divine 
communications to their souls, to consult 
with flesh and blood ; nor to depend on 
the sympathies of their brethren, but ready 
always to go, solitarily, if need be, into any 
desert part of the earth, trusting for sup- 
port in Him who feedeth the young ravens 
when they cry. Such men, with few ex- 



166 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ceptions, the church has not obtained ; and 
is it not equally true, that such men the church 
has not sought ? If with just impressions of 
the magnitude of the work to be done, and 
absolute distrust in her own capabilities, 
she had lifted her hands to the Source of 
all power in heaven and earth, and by 
strong cries and supplications, had pleaded 
with Him for ministers of the apostolical 
spirit ; this age, which so many remarkable 
events and movements seem to designate 
as the set time for the general triumph 
of the gospel, would not, it is probable, be 
so much a stranger to such ministers. The 
church, straitened in herself, has had no 
just views of the immensity of her Lord's 
resources. Her faith, her desires, and her 
expectations have been proportional to her 
views. She has appeared to be afraid of 
excess in her requests, when in fact she 
has comparatively asked nothing in the 
name of Christ. Why should she not pre- 
pare herself to receive a ministry as large 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



167 



as the wants of man, and as excellent as 
that of the apostolical age ? Let it not be 
thought incredible, that such a ministry- 
will yet be seen on the earth. The world 
is to be converted, and converted princi- 
pally by preaching, and by preaching adapt- 
ed to accomplish the mighty result ; but the 
ears of men will never hear such preach- 
ing, until the primitive love of Christ and 
of souls, the primitive self-denial, the 
primitive simplicity, boldness, gentleness 
and zeal, return to the ministry. How 
slow is the course of the gospel, for want 
of preachers so replenished with grace, by 
the unction of the Holy Spirit. We have 
seen that in the midst of the unparalleled 
doings of these times, the cause of salva- 
tion may remain almost at a stand : nay, 
at the very centre and spring of action, 
there sometimes seems to be a backward 
movement. At best we struggle on, amidst 
mingled triumphs and defeats, hopes and 
fears. Not so advances the cause of evil, 



168 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the work of destruction, among the souls 
of unevangelized and unconverted men. 
Is there never to be a change ? Is there 
no help, no way to accelerate the work 
of recovering mercy ? There is a way. 
Let Zion awake and stir herself up to take 
hold of the almighty hand of God. Let 
her sons and daughters array themselves 
in those shining garments of salvation, 
which made first Christians the wonder 
and the light of the world ; and night and 
day let them assemble themselves together, 
and also let them often kneel down apart 
and in secret, and give the Hearer of pray- 
er no rest, until He send forth a ministry 
numerous as is wanted, and with qualifica- 
tions such as were granted at the first. 
Here is the " door," the only door " of 
hope." Let the heart and the hands, and 
the imploring cries of the church be inces- 
santly lifted up to heaven. Let our benevo- 
lent associations proceed on in their respect- 
ive spheres of effort : but let it be ever and 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 169 

vividly kept in mind, that all they can do 
is to prepare channels for the streams of salva- 
tion to flow in — channels to be filled by 
those outpourings of the Spirit, which God 
bestows in connexion with the labours of 
the living ministry ; and ordinarily, in pro- 
portion as that ministry shares the appro- 
priate spirit of their sacred calling. The 
associations of benevolence, instead of di- 
minishing, have vastly increased the neces- 
sity for a ministry of the highest excel- 
lence. They have but prepared the way 
for the influence of such a ministry to be 
exerted to the greatest possible advantage. 
They have exceedingly multiplied argu- 
ments proper to be used in prayer for such 
a ministry. Truly, if ever there was a 
period when the whole Christian world, 
should be down upon their faces before 
the throne of mercy, imploring with all the 
importunity, and boldness, and persever- 
ance of faith, a race of ministers, each full 
of the Holy Ghost, as was Barnabas or 
15 



170 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE*. 



Paul, that period is the one which is now 
passing over us. 

And it is perhaps the brightest of all the 
tokens for good now in the prospect of the 
church, that God seems to have undertaken 
to humble his people before him in such 
supplication. He is manifestly teaching 
them by the signs of the times, that it is ex- 
clusively in his own power to furnish the 
ministry requisite for the evangelization of 
the world. He is lifting up a voice on 
this subject which grows louder and louder 
continually, as if he meant that it should at 
last be heard. At a time when a general 
excitement in respect to the propagation of 
the gospel, unprecedented since the days 
of the apostles, exists in the church ; and 
when means are in operation with direct 
reference to that object, of unexampled 
number and excellence ; and when the ge- 
neral condition of the world favours its 
accomplishment as it has never done be- 
fore, — at this most remarkable juncture, 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



171 



overwhelming evidence is given, that all 
hope for man must perish, if there be not 
by some agency provided, an adequate sup- 
ply of ministers of the gospel. Not from 
one place or another, but from all quarters 
of the earth, testimony multiplies daily, 
that amidst the greatest possible facilities 
for converting the world, a greatly increas- 
ed and more devoted ministry is indispen- 
sable. This testimony comes to us, not 
indeed as the Macedonian cry came to the 
apostle, in a supernatural vision ; but in a 
manner not less affecting or decisive as to 
its purport. It is a real sound which flies 
round the land and rings in our ears all the 
day long. Send us preachers, is the uni- 
versal, ceaseless demand at home and 
abroad. It comes from more than a thou- 
sand of our own destitute churches ; it 
comes from the cities, from the wilderness, 
from the islands, from the uttermost parts 
of the sea, from tracts until lately unknown 
to civilized man; and what deserves spe- 



172 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



cial remark, it is echoed and urged with 
chief earnestness, by all the benevolent as- 
sociations : These, the best of all human 
contrivances for ameliorating the moral 
state of man, are loudest in proclaiming 
the world's dependence, under God, on the 
faithful labours of the ministry of reconcil- 
iation ; nay, they proclaim their own de- 
pendence on these labours, confessing, in 
terms which cannot be misunderstood, that 
their operations would be fruitless, and 
must speedily terminate, if preachers should 
be denied them. Behold what an attesta- 
tion to the unchangeableness of the divine 
arrangement. " Forever, O Lord, thy word 
is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is 
unto all generations." Long ago it was 
established, that the ministration of the 
gospel by the living voice of preachers, 
should be the instrumental influence of sa- 
ving mankind ; and that ancient decree yet 
stands ; and God, in these last days, hath 
by his providence, given such a signal 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 173 

proclamation of it as a still existing rule 
of his empire, that it can hardly be longer 
disregarded. If one thing, now, were done 
by the church, the redemption of the world 
would be at hand ; and it will be wonder- 
ful indeed if it be not done : The cry for 
ministers which sounds so loudly and so 
complainingly in her own ears, should by 
general consent be turned into prayer and 
sent up to heaven. And shall she longer 
forbear to do this ? Shall she stand, and 
hear that unusual cry, and feel no inclina- 
tion to direct it to the ear of Him from 
whom alone help can come ? She has in- 
deed been trying some efforts of her own 
to meet the great demand ; and surely she 
ought to do what she can by personal sac- 
rifices and exertions : but is it not surpris- 
ing that faintness of heart does not seize 
her, while in the midst of all her labours in 
this department, the imploring supplication 
for ministerial help, still comes up into her 
ears, louder and louder every moment, from 
15* 



174 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



every part of the wide world ; instructing 
her that the results of all her endeavours 
are not even as a drop of the bucket, 
compared to what the wants of a dying 
world require ? An impression seems to 
be extending, that sooner or later, a change 
will take place, in some unimaginable man- 
ner, by which the great desideratum will 
be supplied; and the church seems in 
some sort reconciled to bear her burdens, 
and continue her incompetent struggles, as 
she has been wont to do, in hope of that 
extraordinary intervention ; but will there 
never be an end to her dulness of under- 
standing in this matter ? While she restrains 
prayer to God, should she not utterly de- 
spair of an intervention, which as far as can 
be seen, cannot occur in the absence of 
prayer, without contravening the settled 
plan of infinite wisdom ? An intervention, 
an extraordinary intervention, is doubtless 
needful ; and such an intervention may be 
hoped for, when the appointed means of 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



175 



obtaining it are employed : Why are not 
those means at this moment in operation ? 

The standing concerts of prayer, ought 
perhaps to be admitted as proof, that an 
increased impression as to the necessity 
for prayer, has of late been made on the 
churches. But it is of the highest impor- 
tance that Christians do not overrate their 
arrangements and proceedings in respect 
to prayer. It is greatly to be feared that 
there is much erroneous judgement on this 
subject. Several stated concerts would 
seem to indicate that prayer is deemed im- 
portant; yet how often has a general ob- 
servance of a day or an hour been agreed 
upon, and the feeling that originated the 
agreement, been almost exhausted in that 
incipient step ; so that at the recurrence 
of the consecrated season, the place of 
prayer has been visited, not by thronging 
multitudes, with the spirit of lively and 
fervent supplication, but by a reluctant few, 
and by them perhaps, under the impulse of 



176 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



conscience and a cold sense of responsi- 
bility, to offer for the salvation of the world 
the abomination of lukewarmness and for- 
mality. — O what proof of a want of depend- 
ence on himself, and of a conviction of the 
availableness of prayer, must such observ- 
ances be, to Him whose eye is ever fixed, 
not on the outward show of things, but 
their intrinsic truth. Must it not be a 
cause of constant heaviness and sorrow of 
heart to every one, not under the general 
infatuation, that our concerts for prayer, 
of all other occasions of concourse among 
Christians, should have the very last place 
in the esteem of the church ? It is impos- 
sible to lament too deeply this portentous 
fact. In vain does the spiritually minded 
man who justly appreciates it, endeavour 
to find relief under its depressing power, 
from the other good omens of our times. 
This single fact in the scale adverse to the 
church's triumphs, outweighs whatever may 
be in the opposite scale. Let not Chris- 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



177 



tians trust too much to the growing acti- 
vity and number of our benevolent institu- 
tions, while our concerts for prayer are so 
neglected. Rather let them take the alarm, 
let them tremble, for fear of what may yet 
come to pass. While no more interest, no 
more life, can be infused into the manner 
of performing the duty of prayer, all is 
doubtful. This cloud in their prospect, 
may yet overspread the heavens, and burst 
in desolation, which centuries may not re- 
pair. 

Amidst then, those urgent and constantly 
multiplying demands for labourers, with 
which their ears are incessantly assailed, 
will Christians still give themselves up to the 
temptations of the flesh, and forbear to lift 
their cry to the Lord of the harvest ? Were 
it not a most mysterious species of infatu- 
ation? Might it not be well asked, What 
mean they to pretend to be engaged in 
seeking the world's conversion ? Why do 
they not abandon the enterprise of evangel- 



178 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



izing mankind ? Why do they not dissolve 
their benevolent associations, and recall 
their missionaries, and cast the commission 
of their Saviour away, declaring its fulfil- 
ment impracticable, or undesirable ? Nay, 
why do they not abjure the very religion 
of Christ, and abandon themselves, as well 
as the heathen and the whole race of man, 
to despair ? Surely it may be, in consist- 
ency and with good reason, insisted, either 
that these things be done, or, that they who 
make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, 
and give him no rest, till he establish, and 
till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. 

No reason is apparent, why a reform 
should not forthwith commence. — Let the 
past be characterized as it may, by cold- 
ness and neglect, neither the present nor 
the future, ought or need to be, on that or 
any other account, similarly distinguished. 
The end of averseness to prayer in the 
church, is at hand. A time is doubtless 
coming, when, as it was in some of our 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 



179 



seasons of refreshing a few years since, 
the place of meeting for prayer, shall have 
more attractions than the eloquence of any 
mortal's, any angel's tongue ; and why 
should not the present be the date of that 
period? Why will not every true Chris- 
tian in the land, make a covenant with him- 
self to change his life in this particular? 
Why will he not separate and sanctify him- 
self, with direct reference to a different 
course for the time to come ? Why will 
he not call to mind how Abraham, and Mo- 
ses, and Elias, and Daniel, and Paul, and 
above all how the Blessed Jesus laboured 
in prayer ; and resolve in God's strength to 
pray in the same manner? Oh, what an 
amount of beneficent power would our clo- 
sets and concerts exert upon the eternal 
destinies of our world, if they should hence- 
forth be such scenes of importunate and 
wrestling supplication ? What wonders of 
grace would be witnessed in our churches, 
what accessions would be made to the sa- 



180 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



cred ministry, what an impulse would be 
given to the cause of missions, what bright- 
ness would be shed upon all the prospects 
of the church ? 

It is amazing to a man of heavenly sym- 
pathies, that Christians should need any 
thing else to keep them praying always 
with all prayer and supplication in the Spi- 
rit, besides the knowledge of the fact that 
prayer has power with God, To be assured, 
as we are most emphatically in the Scrip- 
tures, that intercession is as truly influen- 
tial on the proceedings of the divine ad- 
ministration, as on those of civil or domes- 
tic government among ourselves — is not 
this enough to keep the church incessantly 
in a praying posture of mind, to make 
each individual Christian intent on redeem- 
ing every moment of life not required by 
other duties, for the exercise of secret or 
social intercession? How much is it to 
be longed for, that Christians should lay 
their hearts open to the influence of scrip- 



CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 181 

tural inculcation on this subject ? On what 
subject has the Spirit of inspiration poured 
forth such fulness of emotion, of illustra- 
tion, and of argument ? As if all depended 
on producing a just impression on this 
point, and as if to produce such an impres- 
sion here, was of all things the most diffi- 
cult, the energies of the divine word are con- 
centrated and borne home upon the heart 
in order to effect the important result. All 
the laws of intercession as exercised among 
men, are appealed to, as being of yet great- 
er force, in respect to our prayers to God. 
The multiplication and character of the 
petitioners, agreement among themselves, 
importunity, confidence, and perseverance, 
in urging their appl cation, are specified, 
and with wonderful earnestness enforced, 
as increasing our prospects of success. 
And now, unless we would make Scripture 
unmeaning, or capable of misleading us, 
what hence must we conclude, but that it 
is truly owing to a want of the spirit of 
16 



182 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



prayer in the church, that the world re- 
mains under the bondage and curse of sin ? 
This is the fact; and it is a fact which 
ought to overwhelm the church in self-re 
proach and sadness of heart. 



VI. 



PRAYER. 



PART FIRST. 

WHAT PROFIT SHOULD WE HAVE, IF WE PRAY UNTO 

him ? — Job xxi. 15. 

The utility of prayer, which, according to 
this Scripture, wicked men dispute, the 
present discourse humbly attempts to de- 
monstrate. This might be quickly done, 
by showing that God requires men to pray ; 
for God, being infinitely perfect, cannot 
prescribe a useless or vain service. Con- 
sent, however, to the utility of prayer, so 
obtained, would be grounded on the pre- 
sumption of its usefulness, not on the vivid 
perception of the intrinsic evidences of its 
utility. The former kind of consent is not 
the most desirable. The heart is never 
completely and permanently won to truth, 



184 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



but by the perception of its inherent excel- 
lence. When we have convinced men that 
God has required any thing, they are bound 
to admit its excellence or utility. But be- 
fore we can effectually commend it to their 
joyful concurrence, their complacency and 
love, we must present to their minds the 
proofs of its essential excellence. This is 
what we now propose to do in relation to 
prayer. 

Two things let us premise : First, that 
we speak only of true prayer; not the 
prayer of formality, nor of enthusiasm, nor 
of selfish anxiety ; but that prayer which, 
through the mediation of Christ, offers up 
the heart's desires unto God with repen- 
tance, and faith, and true submission. — 
Secondly; that in nothing which we say 
concerning the inherent tendencies and the 
influence of prayer, do we intend an exclu- 
sion of the Holy Spirit's agency in this ex- 
ercise, although we no where distinctly 
mention it. The object of the discourse 



PRAYER. 



185 



requires no reference to that agency ; it 
being an examination, not of the nature of 
the Holy Spirit's operation, but of the pro- 
duct thence resulting. These things pre- 
mised, we remark, that the utility of prayer 
is comprehended, — In its direct tendency to 
improve the human character : in its counter- 
acting influence on whatever tends to injure 
that character : in its efficacious influence on 



I. Prayer, more than any other means, is 
adapted, in its own nature, to improve all 
the powers and properties of the human 
soul. 

Without a countervailing influence, the 
soul of man will always acquire the charac- 
ter of the objects with which it has inter- 
course. If those objects be great, they 
will leave the stamp of greatness ; if good, 
the stamp of goodness on the soul; — the 
stamp of littleness on the other hand, if the 




16* 



186 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



objects be little, and of baseness, if they 
be base. 

Again, the soul is more or less strongly 
impressed with the image of objects, ac- 
cordingly as it contemplates them more or 
less directly and intensely. He who re- 
gards a thing through the medium of his- 
torical information, will be less affected by 
it, than he who with his own eye sees it ; 
and he who looks at an object closely and 
minutely, will have a deeper and more ex- 
act impression of it, than he who casts to- 
wards it one or two glances. 

Experience thoroughly confirms these 
observations. Look the world over, and 
find the individual whose mind and moral 
character do not correspond to the objects 
about which his thoughts and affections 
have been most employed. Is there any 
truer proverb, than that " he who walketh 
with wise men shall be wise, and the com- 
panion of fools be destroyed V- To know 
what a man is, it is necessary but to know 



PRAYER. 



187 



what company he keeps, what persons and 
things he has chosen to be familiar with ; 
and as his familiarity with them has been 
greater or less, so it is certain that he 
bears, more or less perfectly, their image, 
whether good or evil. 

But if these remarks be incontrovertible, 
so likewise is the utility of prayer. Prayer 
is an exercise of the soul. It expresses 
the state of the soul in intercourse with 
God. With God, did we say ? Most cer- 
tainly so : It is to no other than God, su- 
premely Good and Glorious, that the soul 
elevates herself in prayer — elevates not 
only her intellect, but her conscience, her 
affections and sympathies — her whole im- 
mortal and ethereal self ; — not to specu- 
late — but to adore — to commune — to 
breathe out her love, and desires, and long- 
ings, into the very bosom and heart of the 
High and Lofty One. What mode of in- 
tercourse more direct, more intimate, more 
affectionate, or better adapted to acquire 
the image of the Object ? 



188 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



But let us consider the nature of this 
high intercourse more particularly. The 
different parts of prayer require correspon- 
dent acts and affections of mind, which 
comprise the substance of all moral excel- 
lence, and which prayer, by frequently cal- 
ling them forth, tends, beyond every thing 
else, to invigorate and mature. — Prayer is 
adoration. And when are the divine per- 
fections so likely to expand the soul with 
the ardours of holy love and delight, as 
when brought distinctly before her eye in 
this heavenly employment ? The philoso- 
pher may be indevout, while he traces 
these perfections in the frame of nature ; 
and the theologian may coldly speculate 
and discourse concerning them as exhibited 
in Scripture. But he who fixes a firm and 
single eye on God in prayer, and dwells on 
one attribute and another with adoring ad- 
miration, will not be long unconscious of 
that pure flame, in which are blended all 
the elements of virtue and happiness. — 



PRAYER. 



189 



Prayer is confession of sin : And when is 
sin more apt to melt the heart into the soft 
relentings of godly contrition, than when 
carefully recounted to Him against whom 
it has all been committed, with a spirit 
awed into reverence and submission by the 
pure majesty of the Divine Presence ? You 
may speak lightly of sin, when your words 
are directed to the sinful ear of a creature 
like yourself ; but get you into some soli- 
tary place, and set the Lord distinctly and 
immediately before you; and spread out 
your offences before His undefiled eye ; 
and under His pure and piercing gaze, lay 
your heart and life open ; — and we see not 
how you are ever to become repentant, if 
your sorrows do not then begin to flow 
forth. — Prayer is supplication for mercy, 
grounded upon the blood of Christ, and 
the promises, which in him are yea and 
amen : And if ever the heart hath advan- 
tages for becoming all subdued and pos- 
sessed by the sentiments and feelings which 



190 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



these wonders of divine love should excite, 
it is now. Men may speak to one another 
of these subjects with as little sensibility 
as they feel towards common things : but 
when the soul collects herself, and comes, 
and, convinced of her guilt, stands trem- 
bling and pleading before her great Judge, 
and tells him of his professed clemency 
and graciousness, and how his own Son 
hath loved her, and how he himself hath 
said and sworn that for his worthy Son's 
sake, he will withhold no blessing from 
any humble contrite suppliant ■ — what a re- 
sistless tendency hath all this to transfuse 
the soul with confidence, and faith, and 
full assurance of hope. — Prayer, finally, 
is thanksgiving for favours received : And 
sure, if ever gratitude unfeigned and unex- 
tinguishable do glow in a mortal's breast, 
this is the occupation in which the ethereal 
passion is generated and nourished. You 
may be reminded that goodness and mercy 
have followed you all the days of your life, 



PRAYER. 



191 



and look around you upon a thousand wit- 
nesses of the divine benignity still com- 
passing you about ; and your heart still be 
but little awake to its numberless and ev- 
erlasting obligations. But not so, if, in a 
secret interview with your Father in heav- 
en, you yourself tell over to him some few 
of the countless mercies which his hand 
hath been incessantly bestowing on you, 
since you first became the object of his 
providential and gracious care. Thus does 
it appear, how the various excellencies of 
holy character are instrumentally produced 
and promoted by means of this exercise : 
and it would appear more convincingly, if 
the time permitted more detail. 

Now as it hence results, that a man who 
lives a prayerful life, must be a man of 
transcendent loveliness and worth, we 
might be fairly required to subject our 
conclusion to the decisive test of fact and 
example. And we need not be unwilling 
to abide the trial. So much was the life 



192 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



of Enoch a life of prayer, so much did he 
acknowledge the divine presence, so inti- 
mately did he converse with his Maker at 
all times, that the Scripture, giving a brief 
description of this ancient prophet, de- 
clares, that he " walked with God." And 
so estimable and spiritual did that man's 
character become, that God, seeing the 
world was not worthy of him, translated 
him to heaven, that he should not taste of 
death. And of Eli as, another singular 
example of prayer, it is also testified, that 
the Lord took him up into heaven, not by 
death, but by a whirlwind. And who knows 
not that in every age the best and brightest 
of men have been those who approached 
nearest to these illustrious patterns of pray- 
er ? At this present time, there are per- 
sons of but inferior parts and accomplish- 
ments, who by reason of great prayerful- 
ness, transcend, in moral worth, professors 
of high distinction and splendid gifts. Re- 
ligionists, however exalted, who are not 



PRAYER. 



193 



often with God in prayer, are but little 
profited themselves by all their privileges ; 
and but little profitable to others by all 
their intercourse with them ; but contrary- 
wise, being persons of prayer by character, 
and not in fact, are stumbling-blocks to 
many; and are the principal causes of this 
world's incredulity in regard to the efficacy 
and usefulness of prayer. Great therefore 
and unparalleled is the direct tendency of 
prayer to improve the human character. 

II. Its utility is further manifest, we next 
remark, in its counteracting influence on 
whatever tends to injure that character. 

If a thing proves its excellence by its own 
good tendency on what it directly exerts 
itself upon, it proves it still more by resist- 
ing and overcoming what has a contrary 
tendency — a tendency to counteract and 
neutralize the good it aims to accomplish. 
If a man show me friendship by coming to 
me with favours and benefits, he shows it 
further by defeating the designs of certain 
17 



194 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



enemies who intend to rob me of them, as 
soon as I get them into my possession. 

Now there are many things in this world 
always acting upon the soul with a most 
debasing and ruinous tendency ; and there 
are no means of overcoming this tendency 
so efficacious as prayer. 

To speak first generally : There is an 
influence in worldly things so hostile to 
the things of the Spirit of God, as some- 
times to make these latter things appear 
like empty shadows, or cunningly devised 
fables; and the mysteries of the everlast- 
ing Gospel are as the superstitious stories 
which frighten credulous children ; and 
judgement and eternity, heaven and hell, 
are words, by which crazed or criminal 
imaginations have expressed their fictions 
of happiness and horror. It needs no 
demonstration, that this is an influence 
utterly subversive of all religion and virtue 
— adapted to brutalize man's rational na- 
ture ; and of course, if there be a future 



PRAYER. 



195 



state in fact, to involve him in all its un- 
told terrors and torments. Nor need we 
stay long to show, to what vast extent this 
baleful influence hath full and domineering 
ascendency over infatuated mankind ; how, 
though there be few professed skepticks 
and scorners, there are but a few whose 
lives do not preach skepticism from begin- 
ning to end ; — which practical skepticism 
is, to all terrible intents, as bad as any 
other. Now to overcome this influence, 
there is no other way than to have the 
soul brought under a strong impression and 
bearing from spiritual things. By the very 
laws of mind, one impression or frame of 
spirit cannot be permanently displaced but 
by the introduction of another; and that 
other never can be generated, but in the 
presence of its appropriate object. Of 
necessity, therefore, must the things of this 
world sway and debase the human mind, 
so long as the things of the invisible world 
do not exert themselves upon it. You 



196 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



must be exposed to the action of unseen 
things, or remain in unworthy bondage to 
things which are seen. You must be in 
such circumstances, that the spiritual glo- 
ries of God and Christ, and the promises 
and threatenings of Scripture, may pour 
their peculiar influence on your heart, or 
else you must remain the slave of mam- 
mon, and sordid drudge of the flesh. 

Now it is almost unnecessary to remark, 
that there are no circumstances in which 
these objects are so nearly approached and 
so deeply felt, as when the soul solemnly 
betakes herself to the exercises of prayer. 
We grant that reading, and hearing, and 
conversing about divine things, rightly 
managed, may make profitable impressions, 
and should by no means be omitted. But 
there are thousands that read, and hear, 
and converse, and though some feeling 
may be generated, it passes over their 
minds as the little circles, produced by the 
falling pebble, pass over the surface of the 



PRAYER. 



197 



smooth water. If those persons could be 
persuaded to try the influence of true and 
fervent prayer, they would find it more 
availing. Retired from the world, shut up 
alone with Him who dwelleth in secret, 
kneeling in his awful presence, fixing the 
heart for communicating and receiving, 
speaking to him, and not of him merely ; 
Oh, this brings the unseen world into view, 
and casts earth into shade and emptiness ; 
this takes importance and reality off from 
temporal things, and puts those qualities 
on eternal and spiritual things ; this places 
the soul on the verge of eternity, and sub- 
jects her to the beams, and breezes, and 
blessed visions of heaven. Here there is 
hope of her losing her skepticism and 
worldliness. In these circumstances this 
world hath little power; and it were not 
surprising, if he who habituates himself to 
an exercise like this, should soon have his 
conversation more in heaven than on earth, 
and his walk more with God than with 
men. 17* 



198 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



But it may show yet more forcibly the 
counteracting power of prayer, to consider 
its operation in some particular instances 
of its resistance to the world. 

The world then, we all know, tends to 
make the sons and daughters of men light- 
minded ; and levity is no ornament of man's 
rational being ; nor is it at all suited to our 
condition in a region full of dangers, and 
lamentations, and arrows of death ; neither 
is it compatible with our present or our 
eternal well-being. But how can levity 
stand before prayer I Books and sermons 
may be unable to contend with it. You 
may tell us of those who let no day pass 
without running through a chapter, and no 
sabbath pass without a visit to the house 
of God, and yet have just as much of this 
world's vanity in their hearts, and gaiety 
in their looks, and giddiness in their lives, as 
other people. Further, we have heard pro- 
fessed christians gravely reason in defence of 
worldly levities, and reason themselves into 



PRAYER. 



199 



a persuasion that they are, to say the least, 
innocent; and with this persuasion, they 
have freely gone into them, and led their 
unthinking offspring along with them in the 
wildering path. But what if these persons 
would but seek in prayer to know the way 
of duty ? What if they would try, whether 
they could keep the spirit of levity at the 
throne of grace, or get leave of Him, 
who sitteth thereon, to be guided by that 
spirit ? What if they would go to their 
Father who is in secret, and ask his bles- 
sing upon their intended indulgences ? Or 
what if, after leaving their gay companions 
and diversions, they would go and tell 
Him of the way in which their time and 
faculties had been employed, to see whether 
it would be sanctioned by the uplifted light 
of his countenance ! How could levity 
endure such an experiment? How man- 
ifestly must a man of true prayer be a man 
of pure and permanent sobriety; serene 
and settled, and cheerful without light- 
ness. 



200 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Again, the world often fills the bosoms 
of men with avarice and ambition; under 
the former of which they make haste to be 
rich, and under the latter to be great ; 
under either, or both, to be undone ; 
since the love of money is the root of all 
evil; and since they have no heart to be- 
lieve the gospel, who receive honour one 
of another. 

Would you then regard that as a useless 
thing, which has a tendency to eradicate 
these base passions from the hearts of 
men ? But if men would give themselves 
to prayer, they would soon cease to be 
the slaves of these passions. Prayer would 
quickly dethrone and banish these guilty 
usurpers of dominion over the immortal 
minds of men. If men would acknowledge 
God in all their ways, God himself would 
be their ruler and guide; and his Holy 
Spirit would hold the throne of their 
hearts. If, before they undertake their 
plans and enterprises, they would submit 



PRAYER. 



201 



them, with the calmness and seriousness 
of pure devotion, for the approbation of 
Him, on whom they depend for success, 
how many of them would they relinquish, 
and with what moderation would they pro- 
secute the rest ! Seest thou a man hurry- 
ing, and scrambling, and scuffling for the 
pelf or the praise of this world ? Assuredly 
thou seest a prayerless soul; professor or 
not, he is a prayerless soul : — one who, 
if he deals at all with God in prayer, deals 
with him only so far as to mock and insult 
him ? A praying man knows too much 
concerning the true riches, and the honour 
which cometh from God, to discover such 
miserable infatuation for the things of an 
hour. To such a man it matters little, 
whether he rank with this world's rich or 
poor, its mighty or its mean. Riches can- 
not exalt, nor poverty depress him; hon- 
ours cannot elate him, nor reproaches 
break his heart. He dwelleth in the se- 
cret place of the Most High, abiding un- 



202 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



der the shadow of the Almighty; afraid 
neither for the terror by night, nor for the 
arrow that flieth by day. 

Once more, the world is full of blinding 
and infatuating influences, whereby the 
ears of men are turned away from the 
truth and are turned unto fables ; and some 
have one doctrine and some another ; 
while the ungodliness of others takes occa- 
sion from the variance, to renounce ail re- 
ligious opinions, and to hold every thing per- 
taining to God and another world uncer- 
tain, unsettled, and incapable of ever being 
placed on any sure basis : Such confusion 
and doubt hath human depravity engen- 
dered in a world to which God's oracles 
have been given for a guide and directory 
in the way of truth ! Nevertheless, men 
must be extricated from this labyrinth, as 
they would be either sanctified or saved. 
As salvation is inseparable from holiness, 
so is holiness from the belief of the truth. 
They have pleasure in unrighteousness 



PRAYER. 



203 



who believe not the truth; and against 
all the ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men, the everlasting wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven. 

Yet they plead the impossibility of 
knowing what is truth. The Bible cannot 
satisfy them ; books cannot satisfy them ; 
sermons but multiply their difficulties ; 
and what are they to do? The Eternal 
Source of truth hath informed them, that 
they would arrive at certainty, if they 
would but cease their rebellion against 
God. "If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine." It is nothing 
but the spirit of disobedience that subjects 
any man to the domination of heresy and 
delusion. But not to enter on the proof 
of this, in its universal scope, we affirm, that 
obedience to God, in the single article of 
prayer, will prove a sure touchstone of 
truth, and an impregnable defence to the 
soul against all the innovations of ruinous 
opinions and dogmas. The soul in prayer 



204 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



stands too near the Fountain of light and 
truth to be invaded by the fatal infections 
of error. Her temper, in this exercise, is 
incongenial to every thing in error's like- 
ness, and shrinks away from its polluting 
approach, as modesty recoils from the ap- 
proach of impudence. Nothing certainly 
but pure truth is capable of being either 
relished or expressed by the spirit of genu- 
ine prayer. For the spirit of such prayer 
is the spirit of humility and submissiveness, 
of heavenly sincerity and holy love ; and 
how, with such a spirit, can any false- 
hood have agreement ? On such a spirit 
light will be poured from all nature, as 
well as from the Providence, and Book, and 
Spirit of God. And hence the common 
observation, that good men always think 
alike in prayer. Nor is prayer an un- 
thoughtful business. Much of intellect, 
as well as feeling, is breathed forth in 
true devotion ; nay from almost every true 
prayer an epitome of the gospel might be 
extracted. 



PRAYER. 205 

Wherefore nothing is more unfounded 
than the pretence of not being able to 
come to the knowledge of the truth in the 
midst of this world's jargon of opinions. 
There is a sure and an easy way; nor is 
the existence of that destructive jargon 
resolvable into any thing else, than the 
world's forgetfulness of God, and known 
character for prayerlessness. Let no one 
question it, that prayer universally tried, 
would unite the whole world, substantially, 
in the same mind and judgement, nor leave 
any man doubtful as to an essential article 
of faith. Thou that hearest this announce- 
ment, art, perhaps, an unsettled, unhappy 
skeptick; yet desirest not to be so, and 
hast long tried to convince thyself. Thou 
hast read; thou hast disputed; and thou 
hast listened, in hope that thy doubts might 
be dissipated. We will not question that 
thou hast done all this; but full well we 
know, there is one thing thou hast not 
done. Thou hast not disinterred thy 
18 



206 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



heart out of this world's pollutions and 
vanities. Thou hast been living in the 
spirit and in the ways of them who fear 
not God. It hath not been thy daily de- 
light to enter into thy closet and shut thy- 
self in from all earthly society, and then 
bow down thy spirit before His presence 
who seeth in secret. Hadst thou done 
but this, thou wouldst not have been now 
a tired wanderer, near eternity's dread 
brink, with a mind full of doubt, void of 
fixed hope, aching with ungratified desire, 
and anon shivering with apprehension of 
what may yet befall. 



VII. 



PRAYER. 



PART SECOND. 

III. Thus have we considered the influence 
of prayer in counteracting the debasing and 
soul-destroying tendencies of the world. 
There are other tendencies favourable to 
the soul's welfare, and we now wish to 
show briefly the efficacious influence of 
prayer upon these. 

We begin with the Word of God. That 
word is, in its unresisted applications to 
the heart, quick and powerful, and as the 
fire and the hammer which breaketh the 
rock in pieces. It is perfect, converting 
the soul ; sure, making wise the simple ; 
right, rejoicing the heart ; pure, enlighten- 
ing the eyes — but the time would fail us 



208 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



to repeat a small part of what Inspiration 
hath spoken in its praise. It is neverthe- 
less powerless independently of prayer ; 
for, however great its excellencies, prayer- 
lessness will either keep them out of view, 
or turn them into deformities and stumbling- 
blocks. What are the beauties of the rain- 
bow, or the beams of the sun to the blind 
man ? And who more blind, though volun- 
tarily so, than the prayerless soul ? What 
was the glory of the only begotten of the 
Father to the earthly-minded Jews, when 
He dwelt among them, full of grace and 
truth ? And what also, are the wonders 
of Truth and Wisdom in sacred Scripture, 
to those who are so swayed by an obstinate 
will, that they cast off fear, and restrain 
prayer to God ? Depravity can see no 
beauty in holiness ; and who are depraved, 
if not the prayerless ? When such persons 
have read the Bible till they have it in all 
their memories, what are they better ? 
Which hath the greater charms in their 



PRAYER. 



209 



eye, God's truth or their riches ; salvation 
or the pleasures of sin ? We have known 
of such great readers, who seemed to have 
learned by their researches, how to cavil 
and blaspheme, or to play the bigot or the 
fanatic — such miserable fruit of their la- 
bour came of their not mixing prayer with 
it. Even the renewed find prayer still in- 
dispensable to a profitable meditation in 
Scripture. Remaining pollution will blind 
their eye, if the anointing of the Holy One 
be not constantly sought; and therefore, 
though the sacred pages lie open before 
them, and though they have once been 
truly enlightened to understand them, they 
shall not, without unremitted prayer, con- 
tinue to behold the wonders of God's law. 

But the Bible is not the only book that 
may profit the soul of man. There are 
profound treatises on every subject of 
theology and morals, in which treasures of 
light and learning are contained for the 
edification of mankind ; and here, where 
18* 



210 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 

man speaks to man, what can hinder the 
acquisition of benefit by the diligent stu- 
dent ? Without meaning to discourage 
deep study, let me rather ask, what can 
hinder its resulting fatally, if prayer be 
restrained ? It matters not what the sub- 
jects of human thought are, if intellect 
alone be conversant with them — if the 
other faculties of the soul — the conscience, 
the will, the affections, — be not duly exer- 
cised, the reign of depravity, instead of 
being overthrown, is established. And the 
danger is not imaginary, that in deep and 
retired studies these other faculties will 
not be proportionately engaged. Those 
pastors know this, whose souls are kept in 
an almost constant stretch of thought, in 
order to get food, intellectual and spiritual, 
for their flocks, that else would starve for 
lack of knowledge. Many think their lives 
easy, and their labour well rewarded, if 
they are just kept out of want : but these 
know little of mental travail ; which, in our 



PRAYER. 



211 



case, while it is all for the profit of others, 
greatly endangers our own spiritual state. 
We have to think so much for them, that 
often we have hardly time for prayer ; un- 
less we think and pray at once ; and yet 
nothing but prayer can keep our thinking 
from withering up the life of our personal 
godliness. — Study, in short, will much ad- 
vance the soul, if it be conducted with a 
prayerful spirit ; but if prayer be slighted, 
while study accumulates knowledge, it also 
genders spiritual leanness and impotence ; 
and it is well if it prove not a savour of 
death unto death at last. 

Thus, also, as to the divine ordinance of 
public Preaching — that ordinance by means 
of which more hath been done for man's 
spiritual interest, than by all other means 
beside. A man may make his boast of 
having the ablest minister in the land, and 
of hearing habitually the most clear and 
pungent discourses that the human tongue 
hath ever pronounced ; and yet the good 



212 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



of every sermon may be lost to that man, 
for want of the spirit of prayer in his hear- 
ing. For what though the seed be the best, 
and be sown with the greatest diligence, if 
it fall upon hard-beaten, or stony, or thorny 
ground ? Now there is no other way of 
preparing the ground of the heart for the 
seed of the word, than prayer ; and no other 
influence but that, which prayer draws 
down upon the soul, can make that seed 
vegetate and yield fruit. A church-going 
man, who is not also a man of prayer, has 
no better reason to expect spiritual benefit 
from the ordinances of grace, than a hus- 
bandman has to expect a harvest, who 
plants his grain, and leaves his field an un- 
fenced common. It is he who enters his 
closet before he comes to the house of 
God, and prays in secret, before he takes 
his place in the public assembly, and keeps 
still praying while the word is sounding 
powerfully in his ear, and forgets not an- 
other retreat to his private chamber after 



PRAYER. 



213 



dismission from the courts of the Lord — 
this is the man who grows, and thrives, as 
every one ought, under the ministrations of 
the word. 

The same necessity is there for prayer, 
to make Providential dispensations availa- 
ble to the advancement of man's salvation. 
For though adversities have a tendency to 
draw him away from the idolatry of the 
world, and mercies should lift his affec- 
tions to their glorious Source, yet all ex- 
perience testifies, that the former will only 
sink him into sullen melancholy or fretful- 
ness, and the latter infatuate him with pride 
and self-sufficiency, unless he keep near to 
God in the exercise of prayer. 

Thus, besides ennobling man's soul, by 
its own proper and direct influence ; and 
keeping other influences from injuring it, 
by resisting and overcoming them ; prayer 
is of this further utility, that it makes all 
favourable influences secure of their end. 
And now, whether, taking these things to- 



214 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



gether, there be not good reason to esteem 
prayer useful, none we think can doubt, 
except those who are resolved not to be 
convinced. 

IV. But all the truth on this subject has 
not yet been told. Prayer has another bear- 
ing — another kind of influence, than any 
which hath yet been considered. It has 
an influence, not only upon ourselves, and 
upon all the means and second causes, 
which tend either to our injury or advan- 
tage, but upon Him likewise, to whom it is 
addressed — upon the mind and conduct of 
God himself. 

So, most obviously, are we taught in 
holy Scripture, especially in those winning 
words of Christ — " What man is there of 
you, whom if his son ask bread, will he 
give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will 
he give him a serpent ? If ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven give good things unto 



PRAYER. 



215 



them that ask him ?" For what are we to 
gather from this and many parallel texts, 
if the only influence of prayer is that which 
it exerts either directly or indirectly upon 
ourselves ? Is it consistent with any just 
rule of interpreting language, to give this, 
or any thing compatible with this, as the 
meaning of passages which represent God 
as bestowing benefits in answer to earnest 
supplication for them ? How in answer if 
the supplication hath no influence to pro- 
cure them ? Is it not clear, that any ren- 
dering of these passages, which admits not 
that prayer has in some way a persuasive 
influence on God, is a wresting, — not 
an explaining, of Scripture, — adapted to 
make men heartless and cold in an exer- 
cise which should never be otherwise than 
fervent. 

Look at scriptural examples of prayer. 
When Jacob, after wrestling in this exer- 
cise till break of day, still refused to cease 
without a blessing, how far was he from 



216 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



supposing that the only influence of prayer 
was that which it had on his own mind ? 
Did those effectual prayers of Moses, 
which turned away wrath from rebellious 
Israel, even after God had threatened to 
destroy them, exert no influence except on 
Moses himself? Were those prayers of 
Elijah, which availed to shut, and after- 
wards to open heaven, without all influ- 
ence, except on Elijah's own heart ? And 
what shall we say of Abraham's prayer for 
Sodom? or Daniel's for Jerusalem ? or that 
of the first Christians, which brought an 
angel down from heaven for St. Peter's en- 
largement? or, indeed, of any prayer in 
behalf of others, — if the influence of prayer 
is confined to those who offer it. 

And why should it be thought inconsist- 
ent with the infinite perfection of God, 
that he should be influenced by prayer? 
It is surely agreeable to God's perfection 
to love righteousness and hate iniquity, 



PRAYER. 



217 



and give due expression of that love and 
hatred by distributing equal rewards and 
punishments. As well deny the being of 
God, as make him indifferent to holiness 
and sin. But true prayer is holiness, and 
prayerlessness is sin. In him then who 
prays, God discerns something excellent; 
something which, consistently with his 
perfection, he may approve and reward. 
In him who does not pray, God discerns 
something evil and hateful ; and which, 
therefore, must draw forth his abhorrence 
and indignation. Just as a prodigal son, 
who asks forgiveness of his father, pre- 
sents, in his penitent and submissive spirit, 
a reason why his father should receive him 
to his arms ; — a reason it may be, that pre- 
vails ; while another unreformed prodigal, 
who implores no forgiveness, presents no 
such reason, and receives no such favour. 

But does not this doctrine make God 
changeable ? Not more so, we first reply, 
than God's being influenced by the obsti^ 
19 



218 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



nacy of sinners suddenly and without rem- 
edy to destroy them ; and by the holiness 
of his people, to smile upon them with 
complacency and loving-kindness. But 
wherein, let us ask, consists the unchange- 
ableness of God? Not in his being al- 
ways entirely destitute of moral feeling; 
but in his feelings always alike towards the 
same objects in the same circumstances. 
God, doubtless, has perfectly pure and pro- 
per feeling toward all things. But all things 
being eternally present in his view, he is 
eternally, and always in the same degree and 
manner, affected by them. The prayer 
that forms a reason for his showing favour 
at this moment, has always been before his 
infinite mind ; and before it with all its pre- 
sent persuasive influence. 

Nor is there any conflict between our 
doctrine of prayer and that of the divine 
purposes, The purposes of God embrace 
all events, and embrace them in that very 
order in which they occur in time. If, in 



PRAYER. 



219 



the order of actual occurrence, prayer al- 
ways precedes the bestowal of blessings, 
it precedes it agreeably to the order of 
the divine purposes. If, in the purpose of 
God, prayer eternally stands present as 
the immediate condition of his favour, it 
were inconsistent, if things were not so, in 
event. 

It does not appear, therefore, that we 
speak otherwise than soberly and truly, 
when we say, that prayer hath power with 
God. There is nothing in the word of 
God, nothing in his nature, nothing in 
his purposes, to discourage the hope of 
prevailing with him by prayer. Far, in- 
finitely far different is the fact. Hath the 
hungry child encouragement to hope he 
shall not ask his parent, in vain, for whole- 
some food ? The most affectionate parent 
would sooner give such a child a stone for 
bread, or a scorpion for a fish, than the 
Father of mercies refuse his Holy Spirit 
to them that ask him. There is not in the 



220 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



universe a being, who compared with God y 
hath any susceptibility to the influence of 
prayer. What emanations of love hath it 
drawn from his heart ! What blessings of 
goodness from his hand ! His mightiest 
acts have been achieved in answer to 
prayer. " What terrible judgements have 
been averted ; what mighty armies con- 
quered ; nay more, the very course of na- 
ture changed — the sun himself arrested — 
by the power of prayer !" — Who can as- 
sign the limits of that power ? Who can 
tell what influence prayer hath had on the 
government of God in this world? But 
since all the parts of God's empire are 
united, its influence has travelled beyond 
earth's boundary, and is now exerting itself, 
and will exert itself for ever, on the far 
distant tracts of creation. 

While we muse on this, Oh, how re- 
freshing and invigorating is the recollection, 
that at this present period, the smoke of 
the incense of prayer is rising up to heaven 



PRAYER. 



221 



day and night from a thousand oratories 
in the four quarters of the Globe ! As- 
suredly the time draws nigh of the resti- 
tution of all things, What wonders shall 
the arm of God presently achieve in fulfil- 
ment of the desires of his saints. Away 
fly all obstructions to the universal spread 
of Christian truth. Away pass the infidels 
and scorners of the day to their own pro- 
per places, and the Gospel of the kingdom 
becomes the glory of the nations, and the 
earth resounds with " Alleluia, Salvation !" 
Transporting scene ! and yet is it not possi- 
ble, that some man may read all this, and 
without gainsaying it, remain unapprized of 
his private concern in the blest contempla- 
tion ? We would put thee in mind, then, in- 
considerate brother, that the end of reading 
and hearing is practice ; and that thou wilt 
be but a despiser of divine counsel, if thy 
life henceforth be not a life of true prayer. 
It depends upon thy conduct concerning 
prayer, how it is to fare with thy soul for- 
19* 



222 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ever. It depends upon this, whether thou 
find in God a friend or an enemy ; and of 
course, whether all things shall work to- 
gether for thy good or thy ruin. It may 
not, indeed, depend upon thy praying, 
whether the ordinary fruits of the divine 
bounty shall be bestowed or not. God's sun- 
shine and rain are given to the praying 
and prayerless ; and even blasphemers and 
atheists riot on his exhaustless beneficence. 
But prayer makes this difference — that 
while temporal blessings become as wings, 
with which a praying man soars to his eter- 
nal rest ; they become as millstones about 
the necks of the prayerless, with which they 
will be sunk down in the deep of eternal 
despair. "I will curse your blessings," 
saith he who gave them — " yea, I have 
cursed them already, because ye lay it not 
to heart to give God the glory." Whether 
thou prayest or not, a smooth full tide of 
prosperity may float thee along for a sea- 
son ; but a storm is gathering ; and soon 



PRAYER. 



223 



the current will turn against thee ; and if 
thou art not a man of prayer, the proud 
waters shall overwhelm thee and thy pros- 
perity be thy destruction. 

Nor can we suppress the apprehension, 
that thine own soul will not be the only 
victim of thy negligence in this prime re- 
gard. Thou standest not separate and 
aloof from all the rest of the sons of 
men ; but sustainest towards them relations 
through which, of necessity, thou exertest 
some influence, hurtful or happy, on their 
eternal condition. Art thou one in autho- 
rity ? Thine inferiors regarding thee, per- 
haps, not only as higher, but as more 
knowing than themselves, learn from thy 
prayerlessness, that to cast off fear and re- 
strain prayer to God is no crime, no dis- 
grace, and of no ill consequence — under 
which delusion thou art leading them on 
to the perdition of ungodly men. — Art 
thou a parent ? Then thine doubtless is 
one of the families that call not on the 



224 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



name of the Lord ; and from all the exalt- 
ing influences of prayer thine offspring, 
by thy fault, are withheld. And will they 
not, by the same means, be also withheld 
from grace and the inheritance of life ? — 
Art thou a member of the church ? Thy 
remissness in prayer exerts a secret influ- 
ence to make the courts of Zion desolate, 
and her ways to mourn ; and to take out 
of their places, or obscure the brightness 
of her golden candlesticks. — -Art thou a 
minister of God ? Thousands may go 
away to wail forever in the prisons of 
darkness, because thou givest not thyself 
to the exercise of prayer. By that one 
neglect, thy thoughts are sensualized, thy 
discourses robbed of unction, thy walk be- 
fore the saints made a snare and scandal, 
and all thy ministrations sadly marred and 
misdirected, if not utterly perverted. The 
prayerless man perisheth not alone in his 
iniquity. 

A word, at parting, to the saint — the 



PRAYER. 



225 



man of faith in Christ. Great, beloved 
brother, and manifold are thy privileges ; 
but what we now would humbly call upon 
thee to bear in constant remembrance, is, 
the power which thou, all impotent and 
helpless as thou art in thyself, can exert 
through prayer. The feeblest of saints 
can chase a thousand — can put ten thous- 
and to flight — can overcome the world 
— can elevate himself to higher hon- 
our than earth can give or appreciate. 
There is a kind of omnipotence in prayer ; 
as having an influence on him who is Al- 
mighty. But why do we put thee in mind of 
this ? Not because we would have thee in- 
flate thyself with pride ; but because we 
remember that the spirit of prayer is al- 
together benevolent. Its power is un- 
to the destruction of nothing but sin and 
its fruits. Its power hath the same scope 
and aim with that Glorious Being on whom 
it depends. Pure prayer's first accents 
are, " hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom 



226 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



come, thy will be done in earth as it is in 
heaven." Faithful brother, man of prayer, 
— a man who hath power with God, — for- 
get not, we beseech thee, what, by means of 
prayer, thou art capable of accomplishing. 
The world's conversion hath not yet been 
achieved. Means, with that great end in 
purpose, have been long in operation, 
and have recently been much increased. 
What those means are, thou knowest ; and 
their powerlessness, independently of God's 
blessing, thou knowest also. We remind 
thee again of thy privilege, as endued with 
the spirit of grace and supplication. For 
Zion's sake, then, hold not thy peace, for 
Jerusalem's sake rest not, until the righte- 
ousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that 
burneth. There is neither dulness in the 
ear nor weariness in the arm of God. 
Both almighty strength and boundless mer- 
cy are awake and alert, to make full and 
swift return to any righteous man's effec- 



PRAYER. 



227 



tual fervent application. And the divine 
glory is still pledged to make the dominion 
of truth and grace universal and complete : 
Of the prophecies promising that triumph, 
not a jot or tittle can fail to be fulfilled; 
unless God can cease to be God, or the 
Scriptures cease to be his word. And the 
souls of men have not become less excel- 
lent than when Christ counted not his 
blood too precious to be given for their 
ransom. Nor are they less liable to be 
lost, or liable to less than an everlasting 
perdition. And shall the knees of the 
saints be soon wearied, and the breath of 
their prayers be stifled ? Oh, let them lift 
up their hands, and pour forth their cries, 
till they cease to have their dwelling in the 
land of prayer. 



VIII. 



THE SABBATH. 



It has often been observed that the Fourth 
Commandment of the Decalogue, remem- 
ber the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, does 
not appoint or institute the Sabbath; but 
rather proves incontestably that it had been 
instituted before that commandment was 
given. It supposes the previous separa- 
tion of the day to sacred purposes, and 
enjoins the due observance of it, as having 
been so separated. The Sabbath, in fact, 
was made not for the Jews, nor for any 
age or nation, but for man, with whose ex- 
istence it wants but a day of being coeval. 
Man was made on the sixth day; on the 



THE SABBATH. 229 

seventh, God having finished the heavens 
and the earth and all the host of them, 
rested from his glorious work, and there- 
fore blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. 
We here find the period of the institution 
of the Sabbath, and the law, which made its 
observance a part of the duty of man. 
God's blessing and hallowing the seventh 
day, was not his imparting any essential 
sanctity or blessing to the day itself, as if 
a portion of time were a conscious intelli- 
gence, but was his appointing it to be a 
day of peculiar utility to mankind, and so 
to be observed by them in a sacred man- 
ner. The day was sanctified and blessed, 
not on its own account, but man's, for 
whose sake all days and the creation itself 
were subordinately designed: and God's 
resting on that day did not import that the 
work of creation, however vast, had wearied 
the Almighty, but that having accomplished 
it, his mind reposed in what he had done 
with entire satisfaction, as a worthy, though 
20 



230 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



inadequate, exhibition of his infinite per- 
fection; the record of which fact, in the 
volume he has given us as our rule of 
practice, is at once a most powerful en- 
forcement of the duty of keeping the Sab- 
bath, and a most illustrious example of the 
manner in which that duty should be per- 
formed. 

II. What practical regard the Sabbath 
received from mankind before the giving 
of the law of Moses, the brief history of 
those times does not inform us ; but that it 
had been observed by the holy men of that 
period, may be gathered from several inti- 
mations ; and that its observance was obli- 
gatory when the law was given, is clearly 
evident, as we have remarked already, from 
the language of the precept concerning it : 
which would not have commanded the Is- 
raelites to remember to keep the Sabbath 
holy, if a Sabbath had not until that mo- 
ment been appointed. 

III. And now, since the Sabbath was no 



THE SABBATH. 



231 



peculiarity of the Jews' religion, but was 
made for man almost as soon as man him- 
self was made, why should it be supposed 
that with the abolition of Judaism, the world 
was deprived of the earliest expression of its 
Maker's provident love ? The passing away 
of the ritual of Moses, no more involved of 
necessity the abrogation of the Sabbath, 
than the abrogation of marriage, or of 
prayer, or of any other holy service, not 
belonging peculiarly to that symbolical in- 
stitute. If the new dispensation does not 
unequivocally disown a Sabbath, the world 
has no more cause to think this divine or- 
dinance disannulled, than that God has dis- 
annulled the covenant respecting the day 
and the night, or the seasons of the year. 

IV. The importance of keeping the Sab- 
bath, not as pertaining to Judaism, but to es- 
sential and indispensable holiness, is manifest 
from the Jewish Scriptures themselves. 
The fact that we find a precept enjoining 
the observance of the Sabbath, among the 



232 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



ten commandments, those unchangeable laws 
of the moral kingdom, which though regis- 
tered in the Mosaic code, were written on 
the heart of man when he was created, 
and were gloriously distinguished from the 
carnal ordinances designed for the Jews 
only, by being proclaimed out of the midst 
of fire, with God's own voice, and written 
on tables of stone, with God's own finger, 
seems to intimate the keeping of the Sab- 
bath to be no part of a mere ceremonial 
service, which, after awhile, was to cease 
and pass away, but a branch of that sub- 
stantial holiness, the necessity for which re- 
mains the same through all the changes and 
circumstances of man's condition. This 
accords with the voice of the prophets, 
who while they speak of mere ceremonial 
observances as being in themselves of no 
use, and as proving a snare if confided in, 
as was too commonly done, insist largely 
upon the keeping of the Sabbath, as com- 
prising virtually the whole of practical re- 



THE SABBATH. 



233 



ligion, and as arbitrating the character and 
destiny of man, "If thou turn away thy 
foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy plea- 
sure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath 
a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable ; 
and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
speaking thine own words, then shalt thou 
delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause 
thee to ride upon the high places of the 
earth, and feed thee with the heritage of 
Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it," When or where 
has God so spoken in regard to any merely 
ceremonial service ? The due observance 
of the Sabbath, here has promise of the 
divine complacency in its highest degrees, 
and it is clearly implied, that this compla- 
ceny will be withheld from the violators of 
the Sabbath. Behold the grand importance 
of this appointment, and how they reproach 
it, who by making it vanish away with the 
ritual of Moses, place it on a level with 
that shadowy institute. 

20* 



234 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



V. Nor do the Scriptures of the old tes- 
tament merely distinguish and set apart the 
Sabbath, in this manner, from the peculiari- 
ties of the system of Moses ; they also deci- 
sively witness to its outliving that system, 
and passing after its dissolution into the last 
and more glorious dispensation of the gospel. 
After God had said by the prophet Isaiah, 
(chap. lvi. 1 .) " My salvation is near to come, 
and my righteousness to be revealed," — re- 
vealed as it was under the gospel, — he add- 
ed, " blessed is the man that keepeth the 
Sabbath from polluting it ; and keepeth his 
hand from doing any evil." Why is the 
observance of the Sabbath commanded in 
this connexion, but to intimate its eminent 
congeniality and oneness with the simple 
spirit of the evangelical economy ? In the 
next verses, a place in God's house, and a 
name better than of sons and daughters are 
promised to persons, who, by the Jewish 
ritual, were excluded from the congregation 
of the Lord : " Neither let the son of the 



THE SABBATH. 



235 



stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord, 
speak, saying : The Lord hath utterly sepa- 
rated me from his people : neither let the 
eunuch say, behold I am a dry tree : For thus 
saith the Lord, unto the eunuchs that keep my 
Sabbaths — even unto them will I give in my 
house and within my walls, a place and a 
name better than of sons and of daughters — 
A time of course was referred to, when the 
Jewish ritual should be superseded, as it 
was, by the new dispensation ; but the ut- 
most stress is laid upon the observance of 
the Sabbath, as at that time indispensable. 
For the persons spoken of were to be 
blessed as above mentioned, only as keep- 
ing God's Sabbaths, and choosing the things 
that please him. The prophet proceeds in 
the following verses, to extend the fulness 
of the divine favour to " the sons of the 
stranger," the Gentiles indiscriminately, of 
whom it is written, " even them will I 
bring to my holy mountain, and make them 
joyful in my house of prayer ; their burnt- 



236 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



offerings and their sacrifices shall be ac- 
cepted upon mine altar; for mine house 
shall be called a house of prayer for all 
people." Yet was it as, "keeping the 
Sabbath from polluting it," that this mercy 
was to be shown to the Gentiles. *The 
Sabbath, therefore, is plainly declared in 
the Old Testament, to be a perpetual ordi- 
nance, the observance of which would be 
required under the most solemn sanctions, 
of those who should live in the times of 
the gospel. 

VI. It was agreeable to the reason of 
things, that such a difference should be 
made between the law of the Sabbath, and 
the ritual institutions of the Jews. Those in- 
stitutions being typical, — mere shadows of 
good things to come — became unprofitable 
and unmeaning, when the antetypes, the 
good things themselves, appeared. It was 
expedient they should come to an end; 
but not so the Sabbath. What called for 
that appointment at first, calls as urgently 



THE SABBATH. 



237 



still. A Sabbath was never more proper in 
itself, and surely never more needed than 
now. Has it ceased to be desirable or 
right, that mankind should rest from la- 
bour, one day out of seven, that they may 
give themselves to holy meditations and 
services? Why has this observance be- 
come improper and unreasonable ? And 
if still reasonable and proper, why should 
the Divine law which first required it, have 
been annulled by the gospel ? 

VII. But the plea not of reasonableness 
only, but also of necessity, may be urged 
in favor of the continuance of the Sabbath. 
Such high ground in this argument had, 
perhaps, been untenable, if man had not 
fallen. Though a Sabbath, even in that 
case, would have been proper and useful, 
perhaps it would not have been indispen- 
sably necessary to mankind. Possibly they 
might have kept themselves in the fear and 
service of God without a Sabbath. But 
could the fallen race have dispensed with 



238 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



one? As far back into the past as our 
knowledge reaches, the Sabbath is seen 
to be the grand instrument of whatever 
holiness has at any time existed amongst 
men. Need we say what has been the 
character of those portions of the human 
family which have had no Sabbaths a- 
mongst them ? Need we describe the mo- 
ral state of the heathen nations, and what 
those nations have always been? What 
did France become when she abolished 
the Sabbath ? What would quickly befall 
this country, distinguished as it is by intel- 
ligence and virtue, if the Sabbath should 
cease from among us ? When would this 
earth become the habitation of righteous- 
ness, or be filled with the knowledge of 
God as the waters cover the seas, if 
the observance of the Sabbath should be 
henceforth discontinued ? To allege that 
Christianity abrogated the Sabbath, is to 
make Christianity inimical to itself; to 
make it disarm itself of the only means by 



THE SABBATH. 



239 



which it can prevail ; to make it an unwise — 
a preposterous, self-ruining system; — ad- 
verse to the fulfilment of prophecy, an en- 
emy of all righteousness, the corrupter and 
destroyer of mankind. The direct aim of 
Christianity is the world's complete reform- 
ation; its transformation into the likeness 
of heaven. With such an object in view, 
it were natural to expect that it would re- 
move out of the way whatever had restrict- 
ed spiritual privilege, and impeded the uni- 
versal extension of the true religion ; but 
that it would repeal the law of the Sabbath, 
or abate in the least, the sanctity and sa- 
credness of that mightiest instrument of 
moral influence, were no more to be ex- 
pected than that it would publish an inten- 
tion of defeating its own purpose, and the 
highest and all-commanding purpose of 
Providence. 

VIII. What then has led some men to 
think that so strange a thing was done at 
the introduction of Christianity ? There 



240 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



are men of this opinion ; men who cannot 
deny the utility, nay the necessity of a day 
of rest, when the rites of religion should be 
solemnized ; but who do deny that the sa- 
cred observance of the Sabbath is now 
obligatory upon the world, as a matter of 
divine commandment. What is it that has 
led them into this, as it seems to us, self- 
confuting belief? Self-confuting, we can- 
not but regard it, because if the excellence, 
the necessity of the day be granted, it 
surely is not also true, that God has with- 
drawn from it the protection of his au- 
thority, and invited men to despise it hy 
revoking that ancient law, which gave it all 
its sacredness. What has originated this 
opinion ? Does the gospel say, anywhere, 
that the Sabbath had come to its end ? 
Did Christ show any disregard to this hal- 
lowed institution? He did indeed claim 
to be Lord of the Sabbath, but he exer- 
cised his authority over it, not by destroy- 
ing, but by rescuing it from the abuses of 



THE SABBATH. 



241 



the Pharisees, who seem to have held, that 
man was rather made for the Sabbath, than 
the Sabbath for man. Though Lord of 
the Sabbath, he set us a perfect example 
of observing it; he kept it holy himself, 
according to the commandment, and in all 
his instructions concerning it, he assumed 
its sanctity as a thing unquestionable and 
unnecessary to be proved. Did the Apos- 
tles of Christ, the anointed ministers of 
the new dispensation, either by their prac- 
tice or their teaching, make void the law 
of God, in regard to the Sabbath-day ? 
The history of their conduct represents 
them as always keeping the Jewish Sab- 
bath, along with other Jews ; and in all 
their writings there is not the slightest 
hint, that to sanctify the Sabbath was no 
longer a part of the religion of man, 
Paul does indeed censure the Galatians for 
observing days and months, and times, and 
years ; and he also cautions the Colossi- 
ans against being ensnared by false teach- 
21 



242 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 

ers, who would judge, that is, condemn 
them for not conforming to their own anti- 
christian principles, in respect of meats and 
drinks, of holy days and new moons, and 
Sabbaths ; but he says nothing in these 
places against the law of the Sabbath, but 
only witnesses against a spirit of self-righte- 
ousness, directly the reverse of the whole 
tendency and design of the gospel. The 
Pharisees, as appears from our Saviour's 
discourses, held to great abuses of the 
Sabbath, of which they made high merit ; 
these abuses the Judaizers, — children of the 
Pharisees, who would be also called Christi- 
an teachers, — laboured to introduce into the 
apostolical churches, along with many other 
like things, belonging to the same system : 
And Paul, jealous for the purity of the gos- 
pel, would secure his converts against the 
designs of these men. But not a sentence 
has either he or any other apostle, written 
to signify the abrogation of the fourth 
commandment of the Decalogue. On the 



THE SABBATH. 



243 



contrary, by their manner of quoting the 
Decalogue, which they often do quote in 
confirmation of their doctrine, the Apostles 
manifestly inculcate the unchangeable obli- 
gation of every precept it contains. For 
while they refer for such a purpose, to that 
document, without stating an exception, they 
clearly admit the authority of one part of 
it, as much as another, and do in this 
way, virtually republish the fourth com- 
mandment as a branch of the law of Christ. 

IX. But a change has taken place as to the 
day, and this to some persons has involved 
our subject in difficulty. We wish to bring 
the sanction of the fourth commandment 
in favour of our Sabbath, although the Sab- 
bath which existed when that command- 
ment was given, was the seventh, and ours 
is the first day of the week. True ; but 
that circumstance makes nothing against 
us. The Sabbath in force when the fourth 
commandment was given, was the seventh 
day, but that commandment did not make 



244 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



that day the Sabbath. The Jews had re- 
ceived another law, appointing the seventh 
day as their Sabbath, the record of which 
occurs in the 16th chapter of Exodus, 
among directions respecting the gathering 
of the manna. The fourth commandment 
given afterwards, requires the previously 
designated day to be kept holy, not by desig- 
nating the day, but by requiring the Sab- 
bath, whatever that day was or might be, to 
be so kept. It does determine that the 
day shall occur as often as once in seven; 
but whether that day is to be the first, or 
the seventh, or any other day of the week, 
it does not determine. If, at a period sub- 
sequent to the publication of the Decalogue, 
a law had been given to the Jews, chang- 
ing the day, the fourth commandment 
would have required the sacred observance 
of that day; provided it was made to oc- 
cur, one day in seven, the next day after 
six working days ; the only legislation we 
find in this commandment as to time. If 



THE SABBATH. 



245 



then the change of the day made under the 
gospel, was made by due authority, the 
sanction of the fourth commandment does 
at this moment enforce the observance of 
the Christian Sabbath. 

X. How then was the change effected? 
By the Apostles themselves, in a manner 
specially marked with wisdom. They did 
not unnecessarily awaken Jewish animosity 
on the subject, by giving out a formal pre- 
cept in respect to the change, but guided 
by that Holy Spirit, whose will they exe- 
cuted, they prudently observed themselves, 
and required their converts to observe, the 
first day of the week, the day of their Lord's 
resurrection; not forbidding at the same 
time, the observance of the seventh day. 
That this was the manner of the change, 
appears clearly from the latter part of the 
New Testament, which, while it relates 
instances of their keeping the Jewish 
Sabbath, informs us that their own re- 
ligious assemblies, were from the beginning 
21* 



246 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



of the new dispensation held on the first 
day of the week, which, as being the day 
of Christ's glorious triumph over the pow- 
ers of darkness, was called the Lord's Day, 
the most honourable style which could have 
been given to it. Nor was the appoint- 
ment of the Apostles unattended by decisive 
and most signal proofs of the Divine appro- 
bation. What religious meetings were 
ever so marked as theirs, by the tokens of 
the Divine presence ? How could the Jew- 
ish converts question that they were obey- 
ing the will of God, by yielding themselves 
to apostolical direction, in this high case, 
when that direction had so clearly the 
sanction of Heaven ? Thus it was that 
the transition took place. The seventh 
day was not legislated upon, but left to the 
natural course of things, while the high im- 
portance attached to the first day, by apos- 
tolical practice and command, and the con- 
current attestations of the Holy Spirit, se- 
cured it paramount, and very soon exclu- 



THE SABBATH. 



247 



sive attention, as the divinely designated 
Sabbath of the Christian Church. If to 
any one, this account of the change seems 
less evincive of that Divine authority which 
we plead for it, than a positive law would 
have been, directly annulling the former 
Sabbath and substituting the present, such 
a person, perhaps, does not duly consi- 
der what unnecessary evils might have ori- 
ginated from this peremptory measure, ope- 
rating upon strong Jewish prejudice already 
elicited in too many forms against the infant 
Church of Christ. Nor does he bear in 
mind how inconsistent with God's wonted 
gentleness and indulgence towards harmless 
prejudice, would have been that abrupt 
and violent way of proceeding. If, as we 
have shown, the original law requiring a 
Sabbath to be observed was unchangeable, 
and if the Apostles of Christ, acting under 
a Divine commission, observed, and re- 
quired Christians to observe, a different 
day from that which had been kept by the 
Jews, the evidence of a Divine warrant for 



248 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



the observanee of that day is complete ; 
and why exact evidence in another form 
inconsistent with the genius of the Divine 
government ? 

XI. Such is the proof that a change 
was duly made : And now if we consider 
the reasons for a change, the propriety of 
the measure will be seen ; and it will 
appear that there would have been cause 
for skeptical wonder if it had not taken 
place. The ancient Sabbath commemo- 
rated the creation of the world ; but the 
new creation is so much more excellent 
than the former, that God, speaking by the 
prophet Isaiah, says, — " Behold, I create 
new heavens and a new earth, and the for- 
mer shall not be remembered nor come into 
mind." Shall no day then be observed in 
commemoration of this creation, but the 
old Sabbath, which brought the first crea- 
tion into mind every seventh day continue 
to be kept ? Shall the less receive perpetual 
celebration, and the greater none at all ? 
But the Jews kept their Sabbath, in memo- 



THE SABBATH. 



249 



ry not only of the creation, but of their 
own emancipation from Egyptian bondage, 
as we learn from the repetition of the Dec- 
alogue in chapter 5th of Deuteronomy. 
" And remember that thou wast a servant 
in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy 
God brought thee out thence, through a 
mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm ; 
therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee 
to keep the Sabbath-day." Now shall Chris- 
tians keep a Sabbath which commemo- 
rates the Exodus of the Israelites, but none 
in celebration of their own and the world's 
redemption from eternal bondage to sin 
and Satan ? Was it not therefore expedi- 
ent that there should be a change of the 
day, — a change which, while it served to 
keep the world mindful of the most glo- 
rious of all events, our Lord's resurrection 
from the dead, did not preclude due medi- 
tation of those other two events which the 
Sabbath formerly commemorated ? Chris- 
tians on their Sabbath may and should still 



250 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



refresh their minds with holy recollections 
of the creation, and of Israel's deliverance 
out of Egypt. It is fit and natural that 
they should do so ; it is still the Sabbath 
which they keep ; an institution first de- 
signed in honour of those events, which it 
should still call to mind, though it now 
have chief reference to another. But while 
the Christian Sabbath may yet subserve the 
purposes of the Jewish, the Jewish could 
not answer the end of the Christian. On 
every account therefore, a change seems to 
have been expedient ; and in this, as in other 
things, God commends to our understand- 
ings as equitable and wise, what he enacts 
and ordains as law to his kingdom. 

XII. The result therefore is this : that 
the original law of the Sabbath, designed 
to be unrepealable and perpetual, and not 
at all affected by the change of the day, 
which took place at the beginning of the 
new dispensation, as was expedient and 
proper, — that law of the Most High, — is at 



THE SABBATH. 



251 



this day in force over all the sons of men ; 
and the Christian Sabbath is not an insti- 
tution resting on the authority of men or 
of custom, or allowed because convenient 
and useful to society, but is an institution 
strictly Divine ; appointed by Divine com- 
mand, and guarded by all that is sacred 
and terrible in the majesty of the eternal 
King. — And has he not placed before the 
eyes of men sufficient tokens of the sa- 
credness of this institution? Do not his 
blessings and his curses, actually dis- 
pensed, proclaim aloud the divinity of the 
Christian Sabbath ? If the moral history 
of Sabbath-breakers, whether individuals 
or communities, and if the moral history 
also of those who keep the Sabbath from 
polluting it, could be fully recited, what 
would be heard but the thunderings of the 
Divine indignation against the former, and 
the breathings of the Divine complacency 
and delight towards the latter ? There is 
no truth, however perfectly revealed, that 



252 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



men may not remain ignorant of, if they 
will not consider its evidences ; they may 
thus remain insensible to the very being of 
God ; and they may in the same manner 
remain doubtful whether the Christian 
Sabbath is an institution which God claims 
for his own. But if they would listen to 
the testimony of facts in respect to this 
matter, they would find it impossible to 
retain a shadow of incredulity. 

XIII. Having evinced the sacred cha- 
racter of the Sabbath as a perpetual ordi- 
nance of God, the right manner of keeping 
it is also ascertained. If the Christian Sab- 
bath were a matter of mere expediency 
and convenience, originating in the com- 
mon agreement of the first disciples, and 
having nothing but long custom to entitle 
it to reverence, there would be room for 
vai'ious opinions, as to the way in which it 
should be observed ; and perhaps the laxity 
on this subject for which some contend 
would in that case be defensible. If con- 



THE SABBATH. 253 

venience were the author of the Institution, 
why should it not also be the rule of its ob- 
servance ? And that being admitted, rec- 
reation and even secular labours, might be 
entirely consistent and commendable. But 
if there has been no repeal of the law of 
the Sabbath, if no change has been made, 
except simply to substitute another day, 
then whatever degrees of spirituality were 
formerly included in the sanctification of 
the Sabbath, are included in it still ; and 
the prophet Isaiah is an authorized preach- 
er to us on this subject. If thou turn away 
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy 
pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sab- 
bath a delight, the holy of the Lord honour- 
able, and shalt honour him, not doing thine 
own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
speaking thine own words, — this will fulfil 
the commandment concerning the way of 
observing the Sabbath. It comports with 
the design and spirit of the day, as our Sa- 
viour has taught us, to do good, that is, to 
22 



254 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



do works of mercy, on the Sabbath ; which 
proves the lawfulness of the Sunday-school 
system, and of the labours of the ministry ; 
but to make the Sabbath the season for 
pastime and sensual indulgence, is to pro- 
fane the holy day of God ; and though 
temporal penalties are not now the conse- 
quences of such iniquity, there is an invisi- 
ble eye which sees it, and there is an in- 
visible hand which will punish it ; and bet- 
ter that the Sabbath-breaker were now 
stoned to death like him of old, than bear 
what awaits him when the day of vengeance 
comes. — Recreations, it has been said, 
ought to be allowed to one class of the 
people, — those who pass the week at labour 
in the cities ; but the question is, does the 
law of the Sabbath permit them ? If that 
law is against them, then to maintain their 
propriety, is to make God tyrannical, and 
to aim to depose him from the government 
of the world. Besides, who does not see, 
that excursions for recreation imply the 



THE SABBATH. 



255 



labours of many hands, and the making a 
merchandise of the day ? 

XIV. It is not in God's behalf only, 
but man's equally, that we contend for 
the perpetuity of the law of the Sabbath. 
The highest interests of this world are in- 
volved in the observance of the Lord's day. 
Abolish that day, and the light of the world 
is quenched, and its hope perished. Reli- 
gion is gone, virtue is gone, freedom is 
gone, — all is gone, that now constitutes the 
elements of human dignity and happiness ; 
and the overthrow of the world itself, hast- 
ens to its period. Especially is the hope 
of our own country bound up in the Sab- 
bath. Where the people exercise the sov- 
ereignty, government must be corrupt, if 
the people be so, in exact proportion. 
Does it need then the gift of prophecy to 
foretel, that if the holy Sabbath be not 
sustained in these united, happy, and ex- 
alted States, our free institutions will fall, 
and our fair and glorious civil fabric, the 



256 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



hope of other nations, sink into ruin with 
the republics of ancient days ? And who 
that considers that our territory is capable 
of sustaining not less than three hundred 
millions of men, and the influence which a 
virtuous and free nation so populous, would 
exert upon the world, can avoid feeling as 
if the heavens had lost the sun, at the 
thought of such a nation becoming a mass 
of moral putrescence in the earth ? What 
then is patriotism, if it be an enemy to the 
Sabbath of the Lord ? A name, a boaBt,i& 
lying vanity. Give us not the patriotism 
which loves our country in word and 
tongue : Give us not the patriotism which 
passes off the love of glory as the ruling 
passion of the patriot : But give us that pat- 
riotism which stands by the holy Sabbath, 
bearing up that real pillar of the State, 
amidst the scorn and contradiction of men, 
who have no eyes to see the indissoluble 
connexion between the ruin and the irre- 
ligion of republics.. 



IX. 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 



" It may be observed, that from the fall of 
man to our day, the work of Redemption 
in its effect, has mainly been carried on 
by remarkable communications of the Spirit 
of God. Though there be a more con- 
stant influence of God's Spirit always in 
some degree attending his ordinances, yet 
the way in which the greatest things have 
been done, has always been, by remarkable 
effusions at special seasons of mercy."* 
Was that the way in which the greatest 
things had been done, from the fall of man 
to the day of Edwards? And would a 



* President Edwards. 

22* 



258 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Christian philosopher hence infer, that re- 
markable effusions of the Spirit, at special 
seasons of mercy, would cease to be the 
chief means of promoting the work of Re- 
demption ; and the future be, in this re- 
spect, wholly different from the past ? This 
inference, as applied to the period from 
Edwards until now, would to all observa- 
tion be contradicted by fact. Things have 
proceeded since the time of Edwards, as 
they had done before ; and why should we 
expect they will proceed otherwise in time 
to come ? Rather, should we not expect 
that " special seasons of mercy," times of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord, 
which have been so greatly multiplied in 
our age, will become yet more and more 
frequent, until there shall cease to be in- 
tervals between them, and they shall run 
into one another, and flow together, in one 
long and still spreading revival, which shall 
result in the conversion of the world ? 
" It has been inquired whether a more 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 259 



gradual dispensation of the Spirit, were not 
better than these sudden outpourings ? But 
we have been accustomed to feel that God 
is the best judge in this matter, and that man 
cannot make a revival either gradual or 
sudden. When he gives us drop by drop, 
we are thankful : and when the cloud of 
mercy above bursts and pours down a 
flood at once, we dare not request him to 
stay his hand ; we cannot but exult and re- 
joice in the exuberance of his mercy. Nor 
can we perceive how it is possible that 
800,000,000 of souls, or any considerable 
part of this number, can be washed from 
their sins, within the most distant time 
to which the millennium can be defer- 
red according to prediction, by single drops 
falling in such slow and deliberate suc- 
cession as should not excite the fears, 
and should satisfy the prudence of some 
apparently very good men. We doubt not 
that greater revivals than have been, are 
indispensable to save our nation and to 



260 RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 

save the world, by giving universal and 
saving empire to the kingdom of Christ; 
and as clouds thicken and dangers press, 
we look for them with strong confidence, 
and with the increased urgency of unutter- 
able desire."* 

It cannot, we think, be reasonably ques- 
tioned that Revivals of Religion are our 
only hope for our country and the world. 
But there is a question relating to this 
subject which ought most deeply to inte- 
rest every benevolent and every patriotic 
heart, especially at the present day, name- 
ly, — How may Revivals be hindered or pro- 
moted ? They are the effects of the gra- 
cious influences of the Spirit of God, but 
yet we know by observation, that usually, 
they are neither granted nor withheld, ex- 
cept in connexion with an agency exerted 
by Christians, adapted to procure or pre- 
clude them. This is precisely what we 
should expect from such passages of Scrip- 

* Dr. Beecher. 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 261 



ture as the following : " Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 
Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way; 
take up the stumbling blocks out of the 
way of the people." "Go through, go 
through the gates ; prepare ye the way of 
the people ; cast up, cast up the highway, 
gather out the stones." It is the province 
of the Holy Spirit to revive the work of 
God; but it is the province of Christians 
to prepare the Spirit's way by removing 
obstructions to the free operation of his 
reviving power. What are such obstruc- 
tions, it is our present object to show. 

If it were not out of the just range of our 
purpose to advert to the opposition of the 
world to Revivals, we might dwell long on 
this topic ; for, averse as the spirit of the 
world is to ordinary exemplifications of the 
spirit of the gospel, it is friendship itself 
towards these, compared with what it often 
becomes, when inflamed by the prevalence 
of powerful Revivals of Religion. Nor is 



262 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



this surprising, since there is nothing which 
presents the spirit of the gospel in such 
perfect and intense hostility to worldliness. 
But Christians are not answerable for the 
world's opposition to Revivals ; nor can they 
hinder it. Nor can that opposition much 
hinder the progress of Revivals. Let Chris- 
tians but take due heed to themselves, that 
they give the world no occasion for oppo- 
sition, by mismanagement or otherwise, and 
men may scoff and rail as they please ; the 
effusions of the Spirit, we may hope, will, 
by such means, be rather increased than 
restrained. 

The obstacles to revivals proper to be no- 
ticed here, may be comprehended in these 
four divisions : Those which arise — from 
the character of the Christian world at large ; 
from the character of the Ministry ; from the 
character of Particular Churches ; and from 
the character of Former Revivals. 

I. A spiritual survey of the state of the 
general church, cannot but make the im- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 263 

pression on every enlarged and intelligent 
mind, that the followers of Christ, of almost 
all denominations, are chiefly engaged 
about other business than that which ought 
to absorb their attention. That business, 
unquestionably, is the salvation of men, 
the conversion of the world. This was 
the business which brought Christ himself 
into the world, and which, when he was 
about to leave the world, he committed to 
the hands of his disciples, of all generations, 
as the high purpose of their existence. 
His first disciples, full of the Holy Ghost 
and of faith, entered on this work, and 
spent their lives and their all in performing 
it. They planted churches in almost every 
part of the civilized world. But nearly 
eighteen centuries have elapsed since they 
fell asleep, and there has been scarcely, 
until of late, any enlargement of Christianity 
beyond the bounds to which they carried 
it ; while within these bounds it has been, 
for the most part, in a state of the most 



264 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



deplorable infirmity, or monstrous perver- 
sion. The reason is, that succeeding gene- 
rations of Christians ceased from the work 
to which the first disciples devoted their 
lives, and gave their chief concern to doubt- 
ful disputations about religious philosophy, 
and ecclesiastical forms, and other secta- 
rian objects. Christians have recently had 
a partial awakening from this mighty in- 
fatuation, but partial it truly is. Any one 
who will lift up his eyes, and look in the 
spirit of Christ, over the length and breadth 
of the church, even at this day, will see the 
vast multitude of its members engaged 
about almost every thing rather than fulfil- 
ling the unrevoked command of their Lord, 
" to teach all nations, and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature." Some, under the 
sway of the spirit of sect, are striving to 
build themselves up in great strength and 
dimensions, and would fain draw down fire 
from heaven, to burn up those who do not 
fall in, and build with them. Some are 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 265 

labouring hard in angry controversy, sup- 
posing nothing to be a more worthy object 
of pursuit than the confutation of specula- 
tive errors on all points of divinity, larger 
and less., Some vex their own spirits not 
less than those of other men, night and 
day, in trying to detect all descriptions of 
heretics and deceivers. And some like the 
Zidonians, are " at quiet and secure," car- 
ing for nothing more in religion, than the 
decent and dignified observances of ordi- 
nances. These most certainly are the 
greatest of all hinderances to Revivals of 
Religion — the mighty mountains which 
stand in the way of the Church's enlarge- 
ment. They are raised and kept up by 
the Church herself, neglecting her proper 
work, and wasting her strength and her 
resources about things of questionable pro- 
priety, or at least, comparatively of very 
small moment. It is not denied that church- 
purity and church-order, as subservient to 
the salvation of men, are important ; but 
23 



266 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



when these things are made the supreme 
concern, the symmetry and beauty of 
Christian character, give place to the 
odious forms of sectarianism, and the Holy 
Spirit of God is grieved and quenched. 
Heresy, in every shape is unlovely ; but 
when Christian brethren, who ought to be 
one, as Christ and the Father are one ; ten- 
der of each other's good name, and glad of 
each other's advancement as each of his 
own ; ever praying for one another ; ever 
labouring, and suffering, and rejoicing to- 
gether, as having one common and indivisi- 
ble interest : when these, of all creatures 
the most closely allied in brotherhood, in- 
stead of living together in unity and love, 
treat each other as if unity were a disgrace 
and a crime, censuring and denouncing 
one another before the world, impeaching 
each other of dishonesty and evil designs, 
without any regard to Christ's counsel, 
(Matt, xviii.) as to the mode of proceeding 
in such delicate cases ; striving with all bit- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 



267 



terness and fierceness of spirit to hinder 
each other's usefulness, and destroy other's 
work : when Christians thus carry them- 
selves towards Christians, as alas, even 
ministers are at this day and in this country 
doing to a great and still increasing ex- 
tent, they are doubtless answerable for 
greater mischief, a more hurtful heresy 
than universalism, socinianism, or any other 
false doctrine on earth. This, though ap- 
parently laid to heart by almost no one, 
is truly the most deplorable of evils. While 
it remains, we labour in vain to remove 
other evils. Error, infidelity, superstition, 
imposture, idolatry, worldliness, vice, and 
crime, in all their forms and degrees, fed 
and fattened from this fountain of death, 
will continue to flourish in the earth, in de- 
spite of all our zeal to destroy them. Re- 
vivals themselves, however multiplied, will 
fail to convert the world, if they do not re- 
move this barrier to the progress of the 
gospel. For according to the prayer which 



268 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Christ offered for his disciples just before 
his death, unity among themselves duly 
manifested, is the just and necessary means 
of the world's conviction that Christ is its 
anointed Lord and Saviour. 

II. The chief instrumental cause of the 
good, and the evil, in the Christian world, 
is to be found in Ministers of the gospel. 
They are, as they have always been, the 
greatest friends, and likewise the greatest 
adversaries, to Revivals of religion. Re- 
vivals have become so common, are pro- 
ductive of such benign results, and are in 
such esteem among all the best churches 
in our land, that few ministers of any evan- 
gelical denomination are now to be found 
among their open opposers. But not a 
few, it is to be feared, are still secretly 
doubtful, if not more than doubtful, as to 
their desirableness ; and in their conduct 
in respect to them, proceed rather on the 
supposition that they may be of God, than 
on the heart-felt and cherished convic- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 269 

tion that they are. Now such ministers 
cannot be relieved of the responsibility 
of being opposed, in spirit and in prac- 
tice, to. Revivals, by their silent and 
negative course concerning them. To 
have no positive faith in Revivals, is to be 
averse and contrary to them. Revivals 
are so big with great consequences, so in- 
stinct with life and power, that they cannot 
be the object of attention, without moving 
the mind one way or another, without be- 
ing hated where they are not loved, dread- 
ed where they are not desired, though pe- 
culiar circumstances of expediency may 
repress positive expressions of aversion. 
Such ministers not only will do nothing in 
favour of Revivals, but amidst studied si- 
lence and reserve, will do much against 
them, both in their preaching and their in- 
tercourse among their people. Can the 
preaching of men be otherwise than essen- 
tially hostile to Revivals, who are not with- 
out doubts whether Revivals are not the 
23* 



270 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



work of man, or perhaps of man and Satan 
united ? The state of mind which dictates 
such a strain of preaching, cannot but dic- 
tate a coincident strain of conversation. 
Direct unfriendliness may not be intended f 
but it will be exerted, and exerted in the 
most decisive and effectual manner. 

But ministers who fully believe in Revi- 
vals, and pray and plead for them as the 
best of God's works, may still be practically 
opposed to them. It is proper here to use 
much caution, but great plainness of speech 
is not less important. It cannot well be 
doubted that the character of the ministry 
in this country has been in some respects 
improving. The glorious Revivals of this 
day speak well for the ministry. But yet 
it is too clear that some of the chief hin- 
derances to Revivals are to be sought for 
among them. They have improved, but 
the room for improvement is still so great, 
that they should continually forget the 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 271 



things which are behind, and press forward 
still towards those which are before. Let 
even our most simple minded ministers re- 
flect, as before God and the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the great Judge of quick and dead, 
upon the general strain of their preaching. 
What is its object ? To earn or sustain 
a high reputation in the church ? or to keep 
in favour with their people ? or to beat 
down theological antagonists ? or merely 
to recover this world to Christ, to save 
the souls of men, to help saints on their 
heaven-ward way, and to bring sinners to 
immediate repentance ? The spirit of Re- 
vivals, unquestionably, admits of no object 
in preaching, but this last. Let a man 
stand up in a season of refreshing from the 
presence of God, and attempt to preach 
with any other object in view, and though 
he should speak with the tongue of an an- 
gel, his discourse would be as " vinegar 
upon nitre" to the subjects of the heaven- 
ly influence. Let ministers, even our very 



272 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



holiest ministers, consider also their gene- 
ral manner of life, and see whether that 
has no influence on Revivals of religion. 
In their plans of action, in their daily read- 
ing and thinking, in their prayers in the 
closet, their prayers in the family, their 
prayers in the church, in their private 
walks and conferences with individuals, in 
their general mode and style of living, in 
the habitual temper and frame of their 
minds, — have they nothing quite unconge- 
nial with the spirit of a Revival ; nothing 
with which that spirit cannot coalesce ; 
nothing which they must reform, before 
they can have good reason to think them- 
selves fit instruments for the Holy Spirit's 
use in Revivals ? Ministers, it is to be feared, 
have, in too many instances, misapprehend- 
ed or perverted the doctrine of the Spirit's 
agency in producing Revivals of religion. 
They have seemed to think, not only that 
the Spirit must work, but work miraculous- 
ly ; not with, but against means ; not by 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 273 



employing instruments suited in their own 
tendency to bring about the desired end, 
but only such instrumental influence as He 
must resist and overcome, or be himself 
defeated, — a deplorable error, which ap- 
pears to have so inwrought itself into the 
religious philosophy of many, that a mira- 
cle almost seems necessary to deliver them 
from its power; and yet so palpably an 
error, that the infatuation which keeps 
them in subjection to it, is a mystery. 
There is no law of nature more invariably 
followed than that, in Revivals of religion, 
cause precedes effect, appropriate means 
are used to attain ends. There is in these 
noblest of God's wonders, a peculiar and 
admirable exertion of the Divine power, 
but they are not miracles ; and so to con- 
ceive of them is to be blind to their true 
excellence, and to the obligations and re- 
sponsibilities in which they involve Chris- 
tians, and especially ministers of the gos- 
pel. Let any just account of a genuine 



274 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Revival which has been given, be intelli- 
gently examined, and it would be an aston- 
ishment never before heard of, if no instru- 
mental causality could be discerned, suited 
in all respects to produce the precise state 
of things related. The history of the day 
of Pentecost, given in the second chapter 
of the Acts, contains indeed the record of 
a miracle, and that miracle answered its 
purpose ; but that purpose was not the Re- 
vival, but the fitting and furnishing of the 
instruments of the Revival for their work. 
The men who, on that day, " were pricked 
in their hearts," and fled for refuge from a 
sense of guilt to the blood of Christ, had 
no other emotions than such as the spirit 
and discourse of the disciples of Christ 
were adapted to excite. And so of all the 
other early successes of the gospel. See 
the ministers of those days, sacrificing their 
all, and without thought of their life, giving 
themselves wholly to prayer and the minis- 
try of the word ; night and day, publicly, 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 



275 



and from house to house, warning ev- 
ery man, and teaching every man, and 
that with tears ; striving according to His 
working, who wrought in them mightily; 
and say, whether their success was without 
an appropriate instrumentality. The like 
connexion between means and ends is 
equally observable in the narratives of 
modern Revivals. There are unusual tri- 
umphs of the gospel, and there are mea- 
sures on the part of the ministry and 
churches not less unusual. Why is it that 
many ministers do not understand this mat- 
ter ? Why do they stand wondering that 
the gospel is so restrained ; that there are 
so few conversions ; that the effusions of 
the Spirit are not every where descending ? 
There is nothing to be wondered at, but 
that ministers should be looking for Revi- 
vals, while they themselves are strangers to 
the spirit of Revivals, and are so living 
from day to day, that Revivals would be 
almost miracles, if they should take place. 



276 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



It needs the example of such a man as 
David Brainerd, to show ministers what 
manner of spirit they should be of, if they 
would exert no influence unfavourable to 
Revivals of religion. He went alone into 
the midst of a savage people, and though 
ignorant of their language, was there but a 
short time, before a Revival occurred by 
his means, as remarkable as any of those 
which have since succeeded in our land. 
That Revival was a wonderful work of the 
Holy Spirit, but it was the effect, instru- 
mentally, of a spirit and labours on the 
part of Brainerd exactly calculated to pro- 
duce it. Let ministers study such an ex- 
ample to learn whether they have a right 
to the appellation of Revival-men. How 
many are there now bearing, and it is sup- 
posed worthily bearing, that appellation, 
who, under the light of such an example, 
would cast themselves into the dust before 
God, as, in the present state of their minds, 
opposed to Revivals ; and by such prayer 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 277 



and fasting, and deep dealing with the 
Searcher of hearts, as Brainerd was wont 
to practise, seek a fresh humiliation of 
soul, — a fresh renewal and quickening in 
the spirit of their minds, 

III. To obstacles arising from the cha- 
racter of the ministry, there are corres- 
pondent obstacles in the character of the 
Particular Churches of which they have the 
charge. — The churches of our land, in re- 
ference to Revivals of religion, are vari- 
ously distinguished. In some, the great, 
the rich, and the fashionable of the world, 
have so much the control, that no calamity 
would be more unwelcome to them, than a 
special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 
Others are, in their own conceit, too en- 
lightened and liberalized, to be capable of 
what to them appears, such pure fanaticism 
as a religious Revival. Others are not un- 
willing that sudden and extensive awaken- 
ings should prevail in the churches that de- 
sire them, but for themselves, they prefer 
24 



278 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the gradual and ordinary influences of 
the Spirit. Others deeming no spirit so 
excellent as zeal for orthodoxy, are afraid 
of the influence of Revivals on their old 
standards of faith, and so hold them in 
suspicion, if not in worse esteem. Others 
on the contrary, overpowered by the spirit 
of party, long for nothing so much as an 
increase of numbers, and set themselves 
against true Revivals, by contrivances de- 
signed to awaken their assemblies into a 
great animal excitement, as a fruitful 
means of proselytism. It needs no proof 
that particular churches, of each and every 
one of the classes now alluded to, are but 
so many masses of obstruction to those 
remarkable displays of saving power, 
which we intend by the phrase, Revivals 
of religion. We do not deny to these 
churches, the right of true membership in 
the general body of Christ ; nor are we 
without the hope that the advance of gos- 
pel light in this day, especially by means of 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 279 



Revivals, will soon exchange their oppo- 
sition to these richest of God's gifts, into 
earnest desire for them ; but it was impos- 
sible in thoroughly searching out obstacles 
to Revivals, to overlook the existence or 
the state of such churches. 

But now let us look at churches of the 
other description — such as are not cha- 
racteristically adverse to Revivals of reli- 
gion, — in these also, mighty hinderances 
may be found. Some of them are com- 
posed of diverse materials, part old and 
part new; part, on various accounts opposed 
to Revivals, and part earnestly desirous of 
them ; giving rise to conflict and alienation, 
in respect to the use of Revival means and 
proceedings, and thus effectually excluding 
Revival triumphs and blessedness. Others 
of the churches now referred to, have ad- 
vanced so far in reformation, under the 
power of the spirit of the age, that they 
welcome the using of means for a Revival 
to a certain extent, but not all the needful 



280 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



means, and none of them perhaps, with the 
requisite urgency. They will favour the 
proper kind of preaching, as far as doc- 
trine is concerned, but not apostolical 
closeness of application and plainness, and 
boldness, and directness of appeal to the 
conscience of every individual hearer. Or 
if they will endure such preaching, they 
will not endure the after methods of parti- 
cular inquiry and prayer, by which the 
favourable impressions of truth may be 
brought to a good issue before the tempter 
has time to efface or prevent them. These 
things are too much like pulling men out 
of the fire, and taking the kingdom of hea- 
ven by violence, to be endured by many 
half-awakened churches. In some church- 
es other difficulties exist. They are not 
unfriendly either to Revivals of religion, 
or to the requisite instrumentality; but an 
unhappy difference between them and their 
pastors, or personal disputes and conten- 
tions among themselves, are a root of bit- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 281 

terness which poisons, in respect to them, 
the wells of salvation. Or they are church- 
es that have long neglected discipline, and 
their vigour and fruitfulness are impaired, 
and the influences of grace withdrawn 
from them, by means of the pestilential ex- 
ample of scandalous members. Or they 
are churches, with whom, whatever may 
be their professed attachment to Revivals, 
the Holy Spirit has a controversy, because 
they refuse to come up to the help of the 
Lord by their cheerful concurrence in 
works of love ; taking little interest in those 
high projects of benevolence which distin- 
guish this age, and which will not fail, by 
God's blessing, to convert the world, if 
duly sustained by Christian faith and libe- 
rality. 

There are yet other churches not free 
from obstructions. They have been dis- 
tinguished as scenes of Revivals, and have 
now no objection to Revivals, and present 
24* 



282 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



no manifest hinderance to them in their ex- 
ternal state. They are supporters of the 
benevolent societies ; they have not neg- 
lected discipline ; they have no conten- 
tions ; they are favourable to the most pun- 
gent strain of preaching, and all the appro- 
priate means of Revivals, and it may be, 
maintain in some sort, the use of those 
means ; but they have backslidden in 
heart, they have left their first love ; and 
while all is well in respect to outward ac- 
tion and profession, there is a weariness, 
a faintness, a secret indisposedness to- 
wards the work of the Lord, in the spirit of 
the people , and they do in some measure 
force themselves in their Revival operations. 
Now such a state of things, is no more 
a preparation for a Revival of religion, 
than a state of open opposition to a Revi- 
val. Nay, there is something peculiarly 
repugnant to the very spirit of true religion, 
in this constrained and heartless show of 
zeal. Its only tendency is to hardness of 



RESTRAINTS ON CIVILE INFLUENCE. 28§ 

heart, both in its subjects and in its objects. 
Perhaps in no circumstances, is the work 
of spiritual induration in saints and sinners, 
going on so rapidly as when a church puts 
forth great vehemence in action, without 
proportional vehemence of true love, — the 
overflowing of gracious affection in the 
heart. All force is hurtful to the human 
mind, and chiefly so in matters of religion, 
where freedom has her throne and the glory 
of her empire. The free Spirit of God 
cannot but resent such injurious violence 
as an insult to Himself, whose cause it pre- 
tends to be subserving : and withdraw 
himself from a people who have kindled a 
strange fire in his temple, and have as- 
sumed the province of the Divinity, rather 
than that of his dependent and helpless 
worshippers. Such churches, therefore, 
should not glory over others, but rather 
strive to abase themselves lower than all 
others, in the sight of God and man. Let 
them esteem themselves, as they truly are 



284 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



in their present spiritual state, not as favour- 
able, but eminently adverse, to a genuine 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let them 
remember from whence they have fallen, 
the tenderness, softness, and fulness of 
their affection in former Revivals ; and how 
their words and their works in those days, 
were as flowing streams from a redundant 
fountain : and by renewed humiliation of 
spirit, let them regain their former graci- 
ous elevation, and do their former works, 
and then may they confidently hope and ex- 
pect that the Holy Spirit will descend upon 
them again, as rain upon the mown grass, 
and as showers that water the earth. 

IV. The remaining class of hinderances 
embraces those which arise from the cha- 
racter of Former Revivals. 

Though the advances of the kingdom of 
Christ have always been chiefly by means 
of Revivals, as Edwards has remarked, yet 
manifold imperfections have mingled them- 
selves in these benign products of the Spi- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 



285 



rit of grace, and in the whole history of 
Revivals we shall in vain seek for one 
entirely faultless. We shall here extract 
from the work of Edwards on Revivals, a 
passage, for whose length we make no 
apology, notwithstanding the familiarity of 
our readers with that work ; since we deem 
it at the same time so seasonable and of 
such diamond value, that there can be no 
danger of its being read again without in- 
terest. " The weakness of human nature 
has always appeared in times of great Re- 
vivals of religion, by a disposition to run to 
extremes, and get into confusion ; and es- 
pecially in these three things, — enthusiasm, 
superstition, and intemperate zeal. So it 
appeared in the time of the Reformation 
very remarkably ; and even in the days of 
the Apostles. Many wer eexceedingly dis- 
posed to lay weight on those things which 
were very chimerical, giving heed to fables.* 
Many, as ecclesiastical history informs us, 



* 1 Tim. I. 4. & IV. 7. 2 Tim. II. 16, 27. & Titus 1. 14. & III. 9. 



286 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



fell off into the most wild enthusiasm and 
extravagant notions of spirituality, and ex- 
traordinary illumination from heaven be- 
yond others ; and many were prone to 
superstition and will-worship, and a volun- 
tary humility, giving heed to the com- 
mandments of men, being fond of an un- 
profitable bodily exercise, as appears by 
many passages in the Apostles' writings. 
And what a proneness then appeared among 
professors to swerve from the path of duty, 
and the spirit of the gospel, in the exercise 
of a rash, indiscreet zeal, censuring and 
condemning ministers and people ; one say- 
ing, I am of Paul ; another, I am of Apollos ; 
and another, I am of Cephas. They judged 
one another, for differences of opinion 
about smaller matters, unclean meats, holy 
days and holy places, and their different 
opinions and practices respecting civil in- 
tercourse and communication with their 
heathen neighbours. And how much did 
vain jangling, disputing, and confusion pre- 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 287 



Tail through undue heat of spirit, under the 
name of a religious zeal.* And what a 
task had the Apostles to keep them within 
bounds, and maintain good order in the 
churches ? How often do they mention 
their irregularities? The prevailing of 
such like disorders seems to have been the 
special occasion of writing many of their 
epistles. The church, in that great effu- 
sion of the Spirit, had the care of infallible 
guides, who watched over them day and 
night ; but yet so prone were they, through 
the weakness and corruption of human na- 
ture, to get out of the way, that irregularity 
and confusion arose in some churches 
where there was an extraordinary outpour- 
ing of the Spirit to a very great height, 
even in the Apostles' life-time, and under 
their eye. And though some of the Apos- 
tles lived long to settle the state of things, 
yet presently after their death the Christian 
church ran into many superstitious and 

* 1. Tim. VI. 4, 5. 2. Tim. II. 16. Tit. III. 9. 



288 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



childish notions and practices, and in some 
respects, into a great severity in their zeal." 

Revivals in times less remote, have been 
attended with similar evils ; and thus from 
the beginning, while antecedent outpourings 
of the Spirit have in some respects favour- 
ed, they have also in other respects tended 
to hinder those which followed. From the 
intermixture of bad with good in Revivals 
of religion, many have been induced, most 
unreasonably and culpably, to stand in 
doubt of them, and many more to come 
forth in open and active hostility against 
them. Making no allowance for human 
frailty, they seem to have concluded, that 
a work of the Spirit, though the sub- 
jects of it are depraved creatures, must 
be perfectly disconnected from all acci- 
dental perversion ; as if there were no me- 
dium between a state of unmingled sin, 
and a state of absolute perfection, and as 
if no one could be a saint, who is not 
already immaculate. But it would not be 



RESTRAINTS ON DIVINE INFLUENCE. 289 

proper here to dwell on the weakness and 
perverseness of the opposition made to 
Revivals on this ground ; it is only for us 
now to bear in mind, that such opposition, 
however unreasonable, is real, is extensive, 
is hurtful, and will be continued doubtless, 
while the occasion of it remains. Let the 
friends of Revivals then, as much as lieth 
in them, labour, if possible, to put an end 
to this opposition, by removing its occa- 
sion. 

The great increase of Revivals of religion 
within the last few years, has given good 
opportunity for discovering, both how per- 
version may arise, and how it may be 
avoided; still no one can be ignorant of 
defects and blemishes in the best and least 
exceptionable of recent Revivals. Mis- 
takes remain to be corrected ; wood, hay, 
and stubble, to be removed. Let us not 
stop in the course of improvement, but la- 
ment over, and endeavour to reform what- 
ever is amiss ; that if possible, our good 
25 



290 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



may altogether cease to be evil spoken of, 
and Revivals of religion, the chief of our 
hopes for a perishing world, become as pure 
as it is practicable to render them by hu- 
man wisdom and watchfulness. 



X. 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST ; 



THE PARABLE OF THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD. 
Matt. xx. 1 — 15. 



A reference to the circumstances which 
seem to have suggested this Parable, will 
assist us in expounding it. Christ had been 
remarking in a very serious manner, on the 
danger of riches, a striking exemplification 
of which had just occurred, in a young 
Ruler's going sorrowfully away from him, 
upon discovering, under the light of his 
teaching, the incompatibility of the supreme 
love of wealth with the love of God. One 
of the Apostles, on hearing these unusual 
observations, seems to have congratulated 
himself and his brethren, that they were 



292 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



obnoxious to no danger from attachment 
to worldly things. " We have left all and 
followed thee, what shall we have there- 
fore ?" The reply of Christ was in the 
highest degree encouraging to all who had 
renounced the world for his service. "Verily 
I say unto you, that ye who have followed 
me, in the Regeneration when the Son of 
Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, 
ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel : and every man 
who hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or 
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
children, for my name's sake, shall receive 
an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlast- 
ing life." But though no self-denial exer- 
cised on Christ's account shall pass unre- 
warded, it is a sentiment wholly inconsist- 
ent with the spirit of humble piety, that 
any rewards conferred by Him on mankind 
are properly merited by them, or that He 
is not perfectly free from all the restraints 
of strict justice, in dispensing his infinite 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 293 



favour ; and to repel this sentiment, which 
is so apt to associate itself with our hopes 
of heavenly recompense, Christ subjoined 
to his promise of munificence to his self- 
renouncing followers, the deeply significant 
Remark, so often repeated by him on other 
occasions, that many who are first shall be 
last, and the last shall be first. Nor did he 
now content himself with merely making 
this Remark ; he dwelt upon it at much 
length, and then reiterated it, that he might 
if possible, fix it immovably in the minds 
of his disciples. Our Parable is altogether 
employed in its illustration. The design 
of this Parable is to set this Remark forth 
in such a manner that no room might be 
left for either ignorance or contradiction. 
Not only is the Parable connected with the 
Remark by the word " for," but at its close, 
the Remark is a second time introduced 
thus ; 44 so " — that is, as illustrated by the 
Parable, — 44 the last shall be first, and the 
first last; for many be called, but few 
chosen." 25* 



294 



RELIGION OP THE BIBLE. 



We, therefore, know the just scope and 
purpose of this Parable. It is to state and 
defend this procedure of the divine admin- 
istration, THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST, AND 

the first last. It is particularly as ex- 
emplified under the gospel, as appertaining 
to "the Kingdom of Heaven," that our Sa- 
viour here considers it. His doctrine is, 
that in God's dealings with mankind, ac- 
cording to the gospel, the rule and disci- 
pline of Christ's empire, — the administra- 
tion of Heaven, — many who are last shall 
be first, and the first last : — many, first, 
in the distributions of nature and provi- 
dence, shall be last, under the distributions 
of saving mercy ; and on the other hand, 
many last in the former distributions, shall 
be first in the latter. 

That the last who are to be first, and the 
first who are to be last, are last and first, 
in respect not to moral character, but to 
the distributions of Nature and Providence, 
must be admitted; otherwise, God does 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 295 



not always render to men, in his final 
dealings with them, according to their 
measures of personal holiness or unholi- 
ness; — to affirm which were to impeach 
the moral perfection of the Deity, and to 
contradict the explicit testimony of Scrip- 
ture. 

It is also to be observed, that the pro- 
cedure is not said to be a principle of the 
divine government, invariably adhered to ; 
but what frequently takes place. Many 
who are first shall be last. It is sometimes 
the case that the first in natural powers 
and external advantages, are also first in 
the graces of the Spirit and the blessings 
of Heaven; but it is often the reverse. 
This is the doctrine of the Parable in its 
general form. 

This doctrine is first stated, and then 
defended, in the Parable : we shall consider 
both its statement and vindication. 

I. The fact itself, that in God's dealings 
with mankind under the gospel, many who 



296 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



are last shall be first, and the first last, is 
thus presented in the Parable. — A certain 
householder, or master of a family, would 
hire labourers into his vineyard. He ac- 
cordingly went out early in the morning, 
and hired some ; agreeing to give them a 
penny, the customary wages, for a day's 
work. Others he employed at nine o'clock, 
three hours after; promising them what 
should be right. Others he engaged at 
twelve o'clock ; others at three ; and others 
again not until five o'clock in the afternoon ; 
— agreeing to give them all a reasonable 
price for their work. At the close of the 
day, he directed his steward to settle with 
the labourers, beginning with those who had 
been hired last, and proceeding inversely 
until he came to the first. This was not 
all : every labourer received the same wages. 
They received a penny who had wrought 
but one hour; and they but a penny who 
had borne the burden and heat of the day. 
Such is the parabolic statement of the 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 



297 



subject. Thus it is, that under the gospel, 
many who are first shall be last, and the 
last first. As the labourers who had worked 
twelve full hours had to stand by, and see 
their fellows all settled with first, and paid 
more than their due ; and when at last their 
turn came, were not paid on the same 
scale of generosity, but strictly according 
to a just agreement, and so received but a 
penny, the same that had been given to 
those who had been but a single hour in 
the vineyard ; — so, in many cases, does 
God deal with men, according to the spirit 
and principles of the gospel. 

Such is the instruction of the Parable ; 
let us now see how the matter stands in 
actual and constantly occurrent exemplifi- 
cation. How appears the doctrine before 
us, in the light of facts and experience ? 
Many who are first shall be last, and the 
last first, — so said our Saviour, and his 
word has been fulfilled in reference to the 
following particulars. 



298 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Ra?ik, or condition of life. Persons on 
this account distinguished, are certainly 
among the first, but how often are these 
first last, and how often are the last in 
rank, first under the dispensation of saving 
grace. Few men of worldly distinction 
have part with Christians, and those who 
have, commonly fall far behind many an 
unnoticed believer, in all the excellen- 
cies and privileges of Christian character. 
When the great of this world become spi- 
ritually minded, their conversion is apt to 
be spoken of as a prodigy, and one hun- 
dredth part of some obscure widow's self- 
denial, would pass in them for unparalleled 
religion. 

Wealth. The last here are sometimes 
first, and the first are commonly last. But 
few rich men ever become truly religious. 
It is affirmed in Scripture, and verified by 
fact, that the pursuit of riches is exceed- 
ingly incongenial with the pursuit of holi- 
ness. Men intent upon wealth, so involve 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 299 

themselves in worldly schemes and enter- 
prises, that thoughts of religion and eter- 
nity can scarcely find a welcome lodge- 
ment, for an hour, in their minds. And if 
rich men, or men seeking riches, do become 
Christians, they rarely attain eminence in 
piety. Much more notice is taken of re- 
ligion in rich men than in poor. A little 
religion passes for almost a wonder in a 
rich man. The man who with an income 
of ten thousand a year, gives fifties or 
hundreds at a time, in the cause of holy 
charity, has the praises of his liberality 
sounded through the land ; yet a poor widow 
who contributes her daily sustenance, and 
fasts a day in consequence, though her con- 
tribution is only two mites, gives in the 
sight of God, greater proof of liberality 
and piety, than all the wealthy of this world 
together, who after all their giving, have 
still an abundance in their hands. Most 
manifest is it, that the rich of this world, 
are commonly among the poorest in hea- 



300 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



venly treasure. On the other hand, hath 
not God chosen the poor of this world, 
rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom 
which he hath promised to those who love 
him? There are, God be praised, illustri- 
ous exceptions ; but, in general, the first in 
respect to riches, are last, and the last in 
this respect, are often first in God's deal- 
ings with mankind for eternity. 

Understanding, learning, and natural gifts 
and accomplishments. The oracles and 
princes of this world's wisdom, are gene- 
rally last in the wisdom which cometh 
from above ; and the weak and foolish of 
this world are often first. To philosophers, 
orators, poets, historians, statesmen, econo- 
mists, the things of the Spirit of God, for 
the most part, are foolishness ; while men 
of but common faculties and little cultiva- 
tion, are refined and elevated into the very 
likeness of God, by what they discern of 
the excellency of those things. It suits 
the pleasure and purposes of the Almighty 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 301 

Sovereign to hide the things into which the 
angels desire to look, from the wise and 
prudent of the world, and to reveal them 
unto babes. Not many wise men after the 
flesh are partakers of the heavenly calling ; 
but God hath chosen the foolish things of 
the world to confound the wise. In re- 
spect to understanding and learning, then, 
the last are often first, and the first last. 

Religious advantages. Many with the 
best means of grace never come to repent- 
ance, but rather grow hopelessly confirmed 
in hardness of heart ; while others with 
nothing but their Bibles, become accom- 
plished and eminent Christians. Many 
congregations, with the ablest preaching 
and the best and most abundant privileges, 
increase only in worldliness and stupidity, 
while feeble and destitute churches, that 
hear a sermon but occasionally, are re- 
freshed with the visitations of God's re- 
viving Spirit. Capernaum, Chorazin, and 
Bethsaida, the cities in which Christ did 
26 



302 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



the most of his mighty works, are in the 
day of judgement, cast down to a deeper 
perdition than other places; while towns 
and villages in the ends of the earth, 
where some humble missionaries have 
been preaching the gospel with stammer- 
ing tongues, rise to the highest spheres of 
everlasting blessedness. Religion, it is 
true, prevails commonly in proportion to 
the pains and prayers of ministers and 
Christians; but it is not so always. The 
last in advantages are often first in grace, 
and the first are often last. 

Reputation for piety. Persons of no 
standing, even for outward virtue, are 
sometimes preferred in the election of 
God, before men of the highest standing 
in the church. The first in profession are 
the last in salvation. Publicans and har- 
lots go into the kingdom, before chief 
priests and elders of the people. A male- 
factor repents and is admitted into Para- 
dise ; while scribes and religious teachers 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 303 



are denounced as serpents, a generation of 
vipers. The greatest professors of religion 
are not unfrequently the greatest of sin- 
ners: first in pretence, last in principle; 
first in show, last in substance ; first in the 
church on earth, last and lowest in the 
church above, if not in the prison of eter- 
nal despair. 

Confidence of good estate. Many who 
profess to know that they are Christians, 
are disowned and condemned by Christ as 
workers of iniquity ; while others who are 
prone to question even their best motives 
and intentions, are welcomed to the high- 
est joys of his kingdom. The first in self- 
conceit are last in the estimation of God, 
and the last in the former respect, are first 
in the latter. 

Religious exertions and anxiety. Among 
those who are deemed inquirers, the last 
are often first, and the first last. True in- 
quirers, indeed, always find in proportion 
to their diligence in seeking : but it is not 



304 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



so in all who are called inquirers. Many 
are ever learning, who never yet come to 
the knowledge of the truth. Many seek 
for months and years, who never find at all ; 
while others awakened to reflection but 
yesterday, have already repented, and been 
forgiven. Many make a Saviour of their 
exertions, while others discover at once 
the folly of such a course, and immediately 
yield themselves into the hands of Jesus 
Christ. Persons of amiable dispositions 
and manners, of regular attendance on or- 
dinances, of frequent convictions, of severe 
mortifications, pass life away, becoming no 
better, but worse and worse, to the last ; 
while men of profane lives are subdued 
by the power of divine grace, break off 
their sins by righteousness, and press in- 
stantly into the kingdom of God. 

Such are some of the actual exemplifi- 
cations of that saying of Christ, which may 
be proposed as the Moral of this Parable, 
— Many that are last thall be first, and the 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 305 



first last. Thus is it often in God's deal- 
ings with men under the gospel. Let this 
suffice for the exhibition of the doctrine. 
Next let us attend to, 

II. Its vindication. This is the object of 
the second part of the Parable. The la- 
bourers who had wrought the whole day, 
upon finding that no more wages were in- 
tended for them than had been given to 
those who had wrought one hour, mur- 
mured against the good man of the house, 
saying, — These last have wrought but one 
hour, and thou hast made them equal to 
us who have borne the burden and heat 
of the day. But he answered one of them, 
and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst 
thou not agree with me for a penny ? Take 
that thine is, and go thy way. I will give 
unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not 
lawful for me to do what I will with mine 
own? Is thine eye evil, because I am 
good ? — So the last shall be first, and the 
first last. The procedure is liable to no 
valid objection. 26* 



306 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



Let us consider the manner in which it 
is here defended. Nothing could be more 
solid, more convincing than the household- 
er's reasoning with the complaining labour- 
ers. It is perfectly logical. It is so sim- 
ple that a child cannot but comprehend it, 
and so obviously conclusive, that no one 
can even offer it resistance. Apply this 
process of reasoning to the procedure of 
the divine administration before us. It 
consists of three distinct arguments. 

The first is, that the 'procedure does no 
wrong to those whom it does not benefit. 
What though the first be last, if they are 
not thereby injured ? If no promise is bro- 
ken, no contract left unfulfilled, no claim left 
unsatisfied, no reasonable demand left un- 
answered, no principle of equity or justice 
is violated. This is the fact, in regard to 
the administration of God, under the gos- 
pel. The Sovereign Judge and Disposer 
of all, is not, in the present case, unright- 
eous. He maintains perfect equity, as 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 307 



really as the householder in the Parable, 
when he gave the labourers their penny- 
according to agreement. What creature 
can complain against him, on the ground 
of not being honestly and equitably dealt 
with ? They who are made last, are not 
thereby treated with arbitrary rigour or 
cruelty. They cannot say with truth, that 
they are dealt with hardly. Is that servant 
hardly treated, who receives from his em- 
ployer the full amount of just wages for 
which he agreed to serve him ? 

If the matter rested here, and not a word 
more could be added in defence of the Di- 
vine Government, every murmuring tongue 
would be condemned. Why reply against 
the sovereign pleasure of God, when con- 
fessedly it does no creature any wrong ? 
But this is not all that should be said : God 
not only does his creatures no wrong ; he 
shows them, even the unworthiest of them, 
the most amazing kindness. Those who 
are translated from the first place to the 



308 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



last, are still debtors to his infinite mercy. 
Let it be considered how they came to be 
first at all ; first in rank, in possessions, in 
knowledge, in religious advantages, and 
preferment. Are they no way indebted to 
God for these distinguished privileges? 
Who made them first in these respects, or 
. what have they which they did not receive ? 
If they would be themselves just to their 
Maker, they would ascribe to his sovereign 
goodness not only their being in any re- 
spect first, but their existence for one and 
every moment out of the world of de- 
spair. The matter is carried far enough 
in the Parable to answer our Lord's pur- 
pose,— to show the wickedness of mur- 
muring; but it is not carried as far as it 
might have been. God does no one wrong, 
but all have done him wrong, to an immea- 
surable extent. These first and greatest 
favourites of his providence, are among the 
first in enmity to his interest, in rebellion 
against his government. They do not 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 309 



sustain toward him the relation of faithful 
labourers to an employer. This the Pa- 
rable does not mean to assert ; it is against 
all Scripture and all conviction. Mankind, 
even the very best of the race, have, of 
themselves, or otherwise than as disposed by 
Divine grace, rendered no service to God, 
and have no claim upon him for any thing 
but his just indignation. The greatest re- 
cipients of his bounty have perverted all 
his gifts to purposes of evil. These men 
of high condition, of riches, of learning and 
genius, of distinction in religious privileges, 
and other peculiar blessings, have forgot- 
ten him, disowned him, set up rivals 
against him, and aimed to subvert his do- 
minion. It had been enough to say that 
God has done them no injury, but the truth 
is that by their pre-eminence in sin, they 
are justly exposed to the severest indigna- 
tion of God. Where now is ground for 
murmuring? That these first should be 
last, and the last first, what is this, that it 
should give occasion for complaint ? 



310 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



The second argument is, that in this 
procedure generosity is exercised only at its 
author's expense. While the householder 
was just to the first, he was generous to 
the last, and his generosity cost no one 
any thing but himself. The murmuring la- 
bourers, therefore, had reason of complaint 
on no ground. They could not complain 
on their own account, for they received 
all they were entitled to. They could not 
complain on account of any other ; for no 
other was injured more than themselves by 
the liberality shown to their fellow-labour- 
ers. The householder had given away his 
own property, and was it not lawful for 
him to do what he would with his own? 
What had it been to them, had he thought 
proper to give their fellow-labourers his 
whole estate ? If a man choose to make 
large presents to some poor family, what 
were that to his workman, who had received 
just wages ? Would it not be thought in- 
sufferable waywardness and intermeddling, 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 311 



in any person to censure and complain 
against his neighbour for being liberal to 
some object of charity? Who thinks of 
even asking questions in such a case? 
Who would not resent such questions as 
officious ? Men do as they please with 
what belongs to them, and will not bear to 
be called to account by any one. And 
may not God, without being liable to in- 
terrogations or censure from his depend- 
ent creatures, do what he pleases with 
what belongs to him? If he injures no 
one, while he shows special favour to 
some, if w 7 hat he bestows is strictly his 
own, may he not bestow it as he pleases, 
without giving cause of offence ? 

This argument is of greater force in its 
application to the Divine proceeding, than 
in any other application of it. God's right 
to his own, is higher than any creature's to 
what he may claim as belonging to him. 
God owns all things in a stricter sense 
than a creature can own any thing. Every 



312 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



creature, as well as every possession of 
every creature, belongs to God more ab- 
solutely, than even the members of one's 
body or the faculties of his mind belong to 
him. When men speak of their right to 
do as they please with their own, they 
speak extravagantly and sinfully, unless 
they mean to be understood in a qualified 
sense. Their own, in strict truth, is not 
their own, so much as God's, whose will 
they cannot disregard in the use they make 
of their possessions without injustice and 
dishonesty. Men arc but stewards of 
God's substance, and the time is at hand 
when they must give a strict account of 
their stewardship. If then they deem it 
an indignity for their fellow-men to find 
fault on any account, for any use they 
make of what they call their property, is 
it not a higher indignity to God, for any 
creature to find fault with him, for doing 
as he pleases with his property ? Every 
man holds it his prerogative to give all his 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 313 

possessions away, if he pleases, to any per- 
son or persons whatsoever ; and who shall 
interfere with his exercising that preroga- 
tive ? And may not God give away as 
much of his own as he pleases, and to 
what persons he pleases, without being 
liable to murmuring and complaining from 
his unworthy and guilty creatures ? If 
he chooses to make the last first, to ex- 
alt the lowest and meanest of mankind 
above the greatest and the highest, by his 
munificent benefactions, may he not with 
perfect rectitude exercise such geneKXsity, 
since it is at the expense of no other being ? 
If, in making the first last, he does not injure 
them at all, but gives them all their rights, 
complaining is excluded ; and it is also ex- 
cluded when he makes the last first, since 
in doing so, he graciously bestows what is 
absolutely his own, and not another's. 

The third argument in vindication of this 
procedure, shows it to be yet more inex- 
cusable to reply against it. It traces ob- 
27 



3i4 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



jections to a spirit of malevolence : " Is thine 
eye evil because I am good ?" Why ma- 
lignant either toward me or my benefici- 
aries, because I show them this kindness ? 
A good temper is gratified and pleased to 
see others happy, even if it have no per- 
sonal share in the happiness. An inge- 
nuous mind has a sincere and a lively 
joy in the happiness of others. It is a 
wretched perverseness to become ill-na- 
tured and envious at instances of gene- 
rosity, merely because self has no interest 
in them. The exhibition of goodness, no 
matter to whose advancement, should com- 
mand the complacency and praise of all. 
To have an evil eye, because the advance- 
ment is another's, is shame and misery. 

Applied to the Divine conduct, this ar- 
gument is of peculiar power. Shall men 
complain while others receive favour from 
God not granted to themselves ? God 
does them no wrong in withholding favour 
from them, while he shows himself good 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 315 



and worthy of universal love, in bestowing 
it on their fellow-creatures. Ought they 
not to praise him for his goodness ? 
Ought they, because of it, to indulge ma- 
lignant feelings both to him and their pro- 
moted fellow-men ? 

There is a speciality in this case, which 
should not be overlooked. The Parable 
does not express all that might have been 
truly said. It states enough to answer our 
Lord's purpose ; but we are elsewhere 
taught, what we also know from observa- 
tion and experience^ that there is one thing 
which immensely enhances the criminality 
of this censure of the Divine administration. 
The favour which a part receive, is what 
the others do not desire. The labourers 
in the Parable had not the offer of any 
thing more than they received ; but man- 
kind have the offer, — an offer made to 
them not only with sincerity, but with the 
greatest possible earnestness, — of all the 
blessedness of heaven. God is willing that 



316 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



all men should stand as high in the joys 
and glories of his eternal kingdom, as their 
natures and faculties will admit. He is in- 
tent upon the happiness of men, and if any 
are not ultimately happy, forever, and in 
the highest degree, the reason is their own 
contempt of the Divine mercy. They who 
are displeased with God because he shows 
the riches of saving goodness to some of 
their brethren, are persons who up to the 
present moment, are despisers of his grace, 
— incorrigible rejecters of his great sal- 
vation. That renewing and sanctifying 
mercy which he shows to others, they are so 
far from desiring for themselves, that they 
labour to secure themselves against its in- 
fluence ; as if to be its subject were the 
greatest of calamities. And yet they are 
offended both with God and their fellows, 
because their fellows are made partakers of 
it. Where can a parallel be found to this 
perverseness ? If it were favour which was 
not even offered to them, they should re- 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 317 



joice that it was given to others ; to be of- 
fended on that account, while it would be 
theirs too, if they did not most obstinately 
reject it, is an iniquity without excuse or 
palliation. 

Remark. We have in this Parable, a 
defence of God's sovereignty in the exercise 
of saving mercy, from the mouth of our bless- 
ed Lord himself. That sovereignty is, with 
much impressiveness, asserted in the mem- 
orable sentence, the last shall be first, and 
the first last, for many be called but few chosen* 
It is constantly, and in the strongest terms, 
taught in Scripture. Why dost thou strive 
against Him ! for he giveth not account of 
any of his matters. I will have mercy on 
whom I will have mercy ; and I will have 
compassion on whom I wilt have compassion. 
Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy he saved us 
by the washing of regeneration, and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost. Who hath saved us, and 
27* 



318 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



called us with a holy calling, not according to 
our works, but according to his own purpose 
and grace, which was given us in Christ be- 
fore the world began. Let not these inspired 
testimonies be hastily passed over, but let 
them be reverently thought upon, and their 
grave import be laid to heart, in view of 
the hastening retributions of eternity. The 
high destinies of man do depend upon the 
will which gave creation existence, and 
controls all its changes, whether in hea- 
ven or on earth. Man's free-agency and 
accountability, the riches of the Divine 
compassion toward him, and his natural 
competency to avail himself of them, and 
all the earnestness and urgency with which 
he is entreated to exert his powers in his 
soul's behalf, and the absolute necessity of 
his exerting them, leave it still a truth, — 
a truth which cannot and should not be 
concealed or evaded, — that if any man 
be saved, he is saved from first to last, 
of the good pleasure of God; or, in the 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 319 



more forcible words of St. Paul, — not of 
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but 
of God who showeth mercy. The fact that 
our Saviour himself, on so many occasions, 
and so boldly, announced this great truth, 
and that he has formally given a vindication 
of it in this Parable, is sufficient proof that 
it ought not to disappear from the preach- 
ing, or the standing confessions and apolo- 
gies of his servants. 

It may be that the reader finds little com- 
placency in this doctrine. It surely con- 
cerns him however to be on the side of 
truth, and especially of a truth so solemn 
in its bearings on his own eternity. If he 
has any difficulties with the subject, he 
should wish to have them taken out of his 
way. Let him remember that his having 
difficulties with it, so far from making 
aught against this object of his dislike, is 
rather proof to him that he is contending 
with the Divine counsel, since the Parable 
itself presupposes a peculiar obnoxiousness 



320 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



in its lesson, to the contradiction of man- 
kind. Why are the complaining labourers 
introduced to distinct notice, but to set 
forth the spirit of the world as exercised 
with this subject ? 

If it be an unwelcome subject to the 
reader, let him consider whether it should, 
or whether in reason and soberness, it 
can be so. Many things might be urged 
against his distaste of it. It might be 
shown from a consideration of the cha- 
racter and spirit of mankind, that if any of 
the race be saved, it must, of necessity, be 
in an exercise of God's self-moved mercy. 
If God be influenced at all by what men 
themselves, in a moral respect, are or do, 
he would be influenced not to save, but to 
destroy them. In his pure sight, all men 
are sinners; and their works, even the best 
of their works, except as rendered other- 
wise by grace, are sinful. If any repent, he 
gives them repentance ; if any come to 
Christ, it is because of the secret attractions 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 321 



of his Spirit; if any are saved, it is by 
their being first conquered and subdued to 
the dominion of holiness and truth. But 
not to insist on this and many other con- 
siderations, let the objector think within 
himself, whether he has any more cause for 
being disaffected toward the perfect sove- 
reignty of God's saving mercy, than the la- 
bourers in the Parable had to complain 
against the householder, for his generosity 
to their fellow-labourers. Let him reflect 
again on the spirit of those complainers, 
and ask himself whether he has a better 
spirit toward God and goodness, than they 
are represented to have had toward their 
employer. 

If the reader be disturbed by his being 
as dependent on the divine will, as he 
must feel himself to be, if he does not 
discard our Lord's teaching in this Parable, 
let him remember that the dependence, 
the sense of which is so painful to him, is 
not dependence on tyranny, or selfishness, 



322 



RELIGION OF THE BIBLE. 



or caprice, or fate, but dependence on 
pure goodness and unerring wisdom. The 
will, by whose decisions he must abide, is 
guided by a knowledge, a sense of fitness 
and propriety, and a benevolence, which 
are absolutely perfect. The reasons of 
its decisions may not be discoverable ; but 
reasons for them there are ; and they are 
reasons which are as weighty in themselves 
as they are in their influence on the Divine 
Mind. 

It is often said that our subject is inex- 
plicable; and that it is hence needless to 
employ one's thoughts about it. No satis- 
faction is to be expected ; no consistent 
solution of the matter can be given. — For 
what purpose, then, did Christ speak this 
Parable ? Is there no force, no pertinency, 
no conclusiveness, no intelligibleness, in 
the reasons by which he would here si- 
lence the murmurs of mankind ? Does not 
the subject, as here set forth, commend it- 
self to reason, to conscience, to whatever 



THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST. 323 



is intellectual and true in man ? However 
unsatisfactory may be the explanations of 
others, shall that of our Saviour be held 
insufficient? Is it not simplicity itself? 
He has no deep theory, no subtle discrimi- 
nations, no elaborate reasoning ; but makes 
his appeals to man's common sense, and 
makes them in such a manner, that com- 
mon sense in a child, can neither misap- 
prehend nor resist them. Let it not be 
again said, that the subject is mysterious. 
If there be mystery here, it is not the mys- 
tery of the subject, but of a perverse and 
unteachable heart. 



THE END, 



